Child's murder 'beggars belief'

When police divers found her body in the Caledonian Canal in January, Danielle had been dead for two months. During that time, her mother had continued to cash Danielle’s family allowance.

Family members had raised concerns about her welfare but by the time social workers attempted a house visit, she had already been killed.

The tragic case ended in the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday when Lee Gaytor was jailed for life, his brother Chris for a year and Tracy Reid for eight years.

Det Insp Stevie Mackay of Northern Constabulary said the fact that Danielle’s mother assisted in the disposal of her daughter’s body "beggars belief". He added: "This was a brutal murder and my sympathies must go out to the other family members who have to live with the fact she was killed by someone she should have been able to trust with her life."

John Campbell, QC, for Reid, had asked the judge to accept that she had come under the spell of Lee Gaytor, a "psychopathic maniac", and had been unable to resist his will.

"She had managed to be a good and loving mother, but her association with Lee Gaytor changed all that," he argued.

"It is almost impossible to understand how a woman can fail to protect her child to the extent she did, and take part in the disposing of her remains. He used bullying, intimidation and sexual domination to get his way. Her rational judgment disappeared. She dared not step out of line."

Mr Campbell said Reid is destined to be haunted by the appalling events until her final days: "There is nothing to demonstrate she is cold-blooded...that she willingly took part in that horrible, surreal walk across Inverness with her child’s body in a suitcase."

Reid’s claims to have been the victim of extensive domestic abuse were supported by a psychologist, Dr Mairead Tagg, who said Reid was a profoundly traumatised and damaged young woman, who had been genuinely terrified of Lee Gaytor and reduced to the level of an animal struggling to survive against overwhelming odds.

But relatives spoke of a cold woman who never wanted a child and had little or no love for Danielle - and Lord Hardie said Dr Tagg’s opinion had been based to a large extent on her acceptance of what Reid had told her about her life.

"It did not appear to me that Dr Tagg had the necessary objectivity (of an expert witness). The impression gained by me is that she made no effort to test the accuracy of the accused’s account," he said.

The investigation which led to Danielle being found started with a conversation in a pub in Inverness minutes before midnight on Hogmanay. Hugh McGrogan, who at the time was the boyfriend of Danielle’s grandmother, Cathy Gordon, was drinking with Lee Gaytor’s brother, Chris, when he suddenly told him: "Lee’s done in the bairn."

When questioned by police, Tracy Reid said Danielle was with Lee Gaytor in England, although she knew her daughter was dead. Officers investigated several locations and eventually traced Gaytor in Nairn, 16 miles from Inverness.

On 7 January, he and Tracy Reid and Chris Gaytor, were arrested and charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice. Hours later, Danielle’s body was found in the canal’s Muirtown Basin in Inverness. Lee Gaytor was then charged with murder.

Danielle’s short and tragic life started on 23 April, 1997 when she was born at Aberdeen Maternity Hospital while her mother was living in Elgin. Tracy had split with Danielle’s father, Stan, before the birth and later moved to Dundee. Mother and daughter moved to Inverness in June, 2001, initially staying with Tracy’s mother, Cathy Gordon, in Rosehaugh Road.

According to Ms Gordon, Tracy did not want to have a child: "She never really wanted Danielle. She even told her younger sister that she despised Danielle."

The pair later moved in with Tracy’s sister, Katrina, whose boyfriend at the time was Lee Gaytor.

Gaytor later switched his attention to Tracy and ordered Katrina to leave the house with her daughter, Adele. Ms Gordon said she has not spoken to Tracy since Danielle’s death and that she will never forgive her daughter.

"I don’t want anything to do with her; they are all guilty," she added. "The bairn was dead in November, so even if she didn’t know anything about it, as a mother she should have been concerned for her child, but she didn’t bother and she was still cashing the bairn’s family allowance even when she must have known she was dead.

"If I was the judge I would have put them all in a cell and throw away the key. Let them suffer too."

Nick and Susan Gordon, Tracy’s uncle and aunt, often looked after Danielle and asked her to be their flower girl when they married in September, 2000. They were outraged that Danielle’s mother was allowed to organise her funeral and chose to bury her little girl to the strains of the Wheatus song Teenage Dirtbag.

Mr and Mrs Gordon say they now have no feelings towards their niece: "Its just one large void as far as she is concerned. No mother proper would have got involved in something like that."

An external investigation into Danielle’s death by Dr Jean Herbison, a consultant paediatrician at Yorkhill Hospitals Trust, is expected to be completed in January.

Highland Council, which carried out an internal investigation, has admitted improvements to the system can be made and has already implemented some changes.

But they are much too late for Danielle.