BBC documentary on murder of Ean Coutts of Kinglassie

The remains of 60-year-old Ean Coutts were found in a disused industrial estate in Glenrothes and the programme on the 'unique criminal case' follows the family’s quest for justice and goes behind the scenes of a high court trial.

'Murder Trial: Body in the Warehouse' will debut on BBC iPlayer on Tuesday January 28 and will then be screened on BBC Scotland and BBC Two on February 11 and 12 respectively.

Ean Coutts, 60, was murdered in his home in Kinglassie in 2019. (Image: Newsquest) Mr Coutts had been killed in September 2019 and his mummified remains were discovered by an urban explorer the following year.

READ MORE: Cardenden man jailed for murder of Ean Coutts

But in the early stages of the investigation the victim, motive and cause of death were all unknown.

“It was an area which had just been completely neglected for many, many years and this individual had been callously dumped,” explains Crime Scene Manager, DS Scott Roxburgh.

“It was a pretty sad scene to be honest, certainly not where you want your loved one’s final resting place to be.”

A national appeal led to the identity of the victim being revealed as Mr Coutts, a father and army veteran.

He had tried to help David Barnes, a decorator from Cardenden, to get a job and he had employed him to carry out renovations in his home.

David Barnes, now 34, was sentenced to 23 years in prison for the murder of Ean Coutts. (Image: Newsquest)

For his kindness he was murdered by Barnes at his home in Main Street in September 2019.

The killer put the body in a wheelie bin and then drove to an abandoned unit at Whitehill industrial estate in Glenrothes.

He left the body in a cupboard and attempted to set fire to the remains.

During the murder trial in 2023, the High Court in Edinburgh heard that Barnes, who is now 34, had assumed the victim's identity and helped himself to more than £5,000 of his money.

The BBC documentary features Mr Coutts' family - his sister Audrey and two of his children, Emma and Louise.

“You kind of almost feel a sense of guilt in a way because we were estranged,” said Emma.

“But he was still our dad and there were still a lot of feelings there.

"You know we could have had that chance to get back in contact with him but the fact that someone’s taken that chance away for us to ever be able to reconnect with him, I think that was quite gut wrenching.”

The murder of Mr Coutts has already featured in a BBC documentary, with Expert Witness screened in November last year.

It showed how three forensic scientists were called into help Police Scotland identify Mr Coutts' remains and then uncover the killer.

Soil specialist, Professor Lorna Dawson, and mite expert Alejandra Perotti were tasked with finding out on how long the body may have lain at the warehouse.

The BBC programme also highlighted the contribution of facial recognition expert Caroline Wilkinson who provided a profile for the man, allowing the police to make a public appeal for a name.

That work paved the way for the identification of the victim and, from there, detectives were able to connect an associate of Mr Coutts to the murder and convict Barnes for the horrendous crime.

He was sentenced to 23 years imprisonment at the High Court in Glasgow in December 2023.

After the verdict DS Roxburgh had said: “Barnes acted in a callous manner, killing Ean and then pretending to be the dead man.

"He disposed of the body in a horrific way, even setting fire to it to try to dispose of the remains, leaving it in an inaccessible place so that it was only by chance it was found."

Last year Barnes' lawyers went back to court to argue that the 'punishment' part of his prison sentence was excessive and should be cut.

However the appeal judges disagreed and said the trial judge had acted correctly.