New particulars have emerged within the case of a person accused of killing a Canadian girl within the distant Shetland Islands of Scotland after which allegedly telling two those that she was in “good well being.”
Aren Pearson, 40, faces seven expenses, together with assault, homicide and making an attempt to defeat the ends of justice within the dying of his girlfriend 24-year-old Claire Leveque, of Edmonton. The Scotsman appeared in Glasgow Excessive Court docket Friday for a preliminary listening to.
The indictment offered in courtroom states Leveque was repeatedly stabbed within the head, neck and physique with a knife and suffered blunt-force trauma. Prosecutors say Pearson strangled Leveque after which submerged her head and physique in water, the place she died.
Court docket paperwork allege Pearson despatched messages to Leveque’s father, Clint Leveque, and to a different individual, saying he was going to provide Leveque money and a aircraft ticket. He’s mentioned to have informed Leveque’s father that she “was in good well being” and that he had booked flights for her return to Canada.
Clint Leveque has beforehand informed CBC Information he acquired textual content messages from Pearson, indicating one thing was improper within the relationship and that flights have been booked for the couple to return to Canada.
“Issues aren’t actually including up,” Leveque mentioned in February.
The small print hang-out Hope Saunders, who mentioned she was shut associates with Leveque most of their lives.
“It appears like a nasty dream. It is sickening that somebody so vivid and so younger and so stunning might have her life taken away from her within the flash of a second like that,” Saunders informed CBC Information from Barrhead, Alta., the place she lives.
“And her being so distant within the Shetland Islands breaks my coronary heart much more. … Do not even wish to take into consideration how scared she may need been.”
Accusations of prior threats, abuse
The indictment reveals Pearson can also be accused of repeatedly threatening and being abusive to Leveque and that he assaulted her between Oct. 21, 2023 and the day of her dying.
Pearson stays in custody. He has pleaded not responsible to all expenses.
A trial, which might final eight days, has been scheduled to begin Oct. 6, 2025, in Edinburgh.
“Nonetheless fairly a shock. It would not fairly really feel actual. It should not be actual,” Saunders mentioned. “On the subject of considering of Claire, I am attempting to recollect her because the individual she was, not how she was taken from this world.”
Leveque’s father and brother, who stay in Manitoba, mentioned they have been less than doing interviews following Pearson’s courtroom look.
Nevertheless, a press release supplied by a household spokesperson mentioned they’re intently following the authorized developments in Scotland, getting weekly updates and that they help the continued investigation.
The household mentioned it is conscious the defence might discover psychological well being claims, however they’re targeted on getting a conviction and hoping for the utmost penalty. Life sentences must be given for murder under U.K. law.
“At simply 24 years previous, Claire was a vivid gentle whose legacy won’t ever be forgotten,” the assertion mentioned.
“Whereas the household is conscious of the main points surrounding Claire’s dying, the circumstances are deeply distressing and profoundly upsetting. We anticipate uncovering extra tragic details because the prosecution progresses, and we’re bracing ourselves for that painful actuality.”
Household hopes to attend Scottish trial
Leveque’s household hopes to attend the trial when it happens, with the assistance of sufferer help applications in Canada and the U.Ok. They’re additionally doing fundraising of their very own.
Leveque was initially from Westlock, Alta., a group roughly 90 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, however she had been residing and dealing in Edmonton.
That’s the place she met Pearson. The couple moved to the Shetland Islands late final 12 months.
In a information launch, police mentioned they have been known as to the couple’s Shetland dwelling Feb. 11 due to a disturbance. They discovered a girl lifeless in a storage linked to the property and arrested a person who was taken to hospital for remedy. Lower than one kilometre away, divers and a restoration truck pulled the wreckage of a Porsche automobile from the North Sea.
Court docket Friday heard the declare that Pearson drove a car into the ocean and that he injured himself in entrance of his mom.
The case has shaken residents of the distant Scottish group, which has a regional inhabitants of roughly 23,000.
Leveque’s stays have been cremated and returned to household final April. They are going to finally be laid to relaxation beside her mom in Alberta.
WATCH | Aren Pearson posted footage driving automobile much like that pulled from North Sea:
Aren Pearson posted video of driving round Sandness, Scotland, in a Porsche Boxster to social media. The wreckage of a Porsche was additionally recovered from the North Sea by divers and a restoration workforce after Claire Levesque died.
Intimate companion violence a ‘world epidemic’: household
In Canada, Dec. 6 marks the Nationwide Day of Remembrance and Motion on Violence In opposition to Ladies.
Of their assertion, Leveque’s household highlighted the problem of intimate companion violence, “a worldwide epidemic affecting 30 per cent of girls, in line with the WHO [World Health Organization]. This should change. As a worldwide group, we should do higher.”
They’re advocating for the enlargement of federal laws known as Keira’s Legislation into Manitoba, which requires judges to think about home violence and coercive management when making courtroom choices. It was named after Keira Kagan, a younger lady who was found dead next to her father’s body on the base of a cliff in Milton, Ont., in 2020.
In April, Manitoba Liberal MLA Cindy Lamoureux launched a personal member’s invoice calling for brand spanking new provincial judges and justices of the peace to endure coaching in coercive management in intimate companion and household relationships, sexual assault, intimate companion violence and systemic racism and discrimination.
The NDP authorities didn’t move that invoice however as an alternative drew up its personal, which is able to add everlasting funding for the judicial schooling and develop it to incorporate the expertise of Indigenous folks and LGBTQ individuals in society and the justice system. It has Lamoureux’s help. The invoice handed first studying earlier than the federal government vacation break.
Saunders, who mentioned she has skilled intimate companion violence herself, helps the Leveque household’s name for extra consciousness, schooling and help — and hopes legislative modifications shall be a part of her good friend’s legacy.
“It is necessary for girls to recollect such as you’re not alone.” Saunders mentioned.
“When Claire went to the Shetland Islands, she was alone. She was attempting to come back again to Canada. And I do know she did not have that help in place to obtain the assistance and get … her out of that harmful scenario or menace.”
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