Man jailed for park rape and murder
A man has been found guilty of the "vile and barbaric" rape and murder of a businesswoman in a city park.
A jury at the High Court in Glasgow took around two hours to unanimously convict Marek Harcar of robbing, raping and killing sales adviser Moira Jones, 40.
Harcar, 33, of Slovakia, was jailed for life and told he would spend a minimum of 25 years behind bars.
He was also convicted of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by fleeing Scotland to Slovakia to avoid detection for the crime. He was also placed on the sex offenders' register and will be deported when he is freed.
As Harcar was led from the dock there were shouts of "beast" and "animal" from the public gallery.
Outside court, the victim's mother Beatrice Jones said: "Our precious girl had her life stolen from her in the most savage way by an evil, depraved monster without the guts to confess and who prolonged the agony of the trial."
Her voice trembling with emotion as she spoke, Mrs Jones added: "Moira, darling Moira, we were so proud of you. We will always be so proud of you and we will do the best we can with our lives to make us worthy of you. You will live with us forever."
Mrs Jones, who was accompanied by her husband Hugh, son Grant and Ms Jones's partner Paul Thompson, also revealed that the family had set up a fund in Ms Jones's memory.
Ms Jones, originally from Weston in Staffordshire, was attacked by Harcar after parking her car yards from her flat at nearby Queens Drive on the night of May 28, 2008.
She was taken into Queens Park and assaulted before being dragged deeper into the centre of the park. Her partially-clothed body was found by a park ranger lying face-down behind a privet hedge the following day.
