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33-year-old woman arrested and charged in connection with death of three-year-old Mikaeel Kular after discovery of body in Kirkcaldy | 33-year-old woman arrested and charged in connection with death of three-year-old Mikaeel Kular after discovery of body in Kirkcaldy |
(1 day later) | |
Hundreds of people took to the streets of Edinburgh to search for three-year-old Mikaeel Kular, in a mood of optimism that it was only a matter of time before he was found. But on Saturday night police were trying to work out how he ended up dead in woods nearly 30 miles away. | Hundreds of people took to the streets of Edinburgh to search for three-year-old Mikaeel Kular, in a mood of optimism that it was only a matter of time before he was found. But on Saturday night police were trying to work out how he ended up dead in woods nearly 30 miles away. |
Police confirmed that a 33-year-old woman had been arrested and | |
charged as part of the investigation into the death of Mikaeel, | |
whose body they confirmed they found earlier in Kirkcaldy, Fife. | |
They said the woman would appear at Edinburgh Sheriffs Court on | |
Monday morning. The developments were described by Scotland's First | |
Minister, Alex Salmond, as "the news we have all been | |
dreading". | |
As detectives attempted to piece together the events that led up | |
to, and followed, Mikaeel's disappearance, community leaders in | |
Edinburgh urged people not to jump to conclusions about what had | |
happened. | |
However, social media were awash with unsubstantiated | |
speculation about the death; police said they were aware of racist | |
comments on Twitter. At least one person, from the Greater | |
Manchester area, was being investigated over an allegedly offensive | |
tweet. | |
Ms Kular, a mother of five, had told detectives that she | |
discovered her son was missing on Thursday morning after putting | |
him to bed the previous night. His brown jacket, multicoloured | |
gloves and shoes were gone. | |
Initially police said Mikaeel might have left the flat by | |
himself, but neighbours expressed doubts that a child of three | |
would have been capable of opening the heavy main door to the | |
apartment block. | |
The charges followed the discovery of the body late on Friday | |
night. Assistant Chief Constable Malcolm Graham, who looked visibly | |
shaken when announcing the news a short time later, Almost 24 hours | |
later they confirmed the body was indeed that of Mikaeel". | |
"A person has been detained in connection with the recovery of | |
the body and members of Mikaeel's family have been informed of the | |
recovery," he said. "Our thoughts and sympathies are with them at | |
this time." | |
brightcove.createExperiences(); | |
ACC Graham praised the community in North Edinburgh who turned | |
in large numbers to help search for the missing child before his | |
body was discovered. He said a further 500 calls had been received | |
from the public looking to help officers with their inquiries. | |
The house in Kirkcaldy and nearby woods were cordoned off by | |
police as forensic teams scoured the area on Saturday. At about | |
4pm, an ambulance reported to be carrying the boy's body was seen | |
leaving the area. | |
Ms Kular, a beauty therapist, is said to have separated from a | |
man she married in her early twenties and was living with a new | |
partner. She previously wrote a light-hearted post about herself | |
online, saying that she lived with "just me, myself and I ... oh | |
yeah, with a brood of five monsters, six if you count the man | |
indoors!" | |
A steady stream of mourners left flowers and cuddly toys near | |
the Kular family home in Ferry Gait Crescent, in the Drylaw area of | |
Edinburgh. One note read: "This is so sad and a great loss to our | |
street in Ferry Gait Crescent." | |
For two days, hundreds of local people had turned out to help | |
search for Mikaeel, spending hours scouring the local streets and | |
nearby coastline. Frank Arthur, 72, who lives in the flat above Ms | |
Kular, said that he was finding the news "difficult to come to | |
terms with". "Everybody has been rooting for that little kid. | |
There's an awful lot of people who gave up time to go out and look | |
for him." | |
Irvine Welsh, the author, who grew up in the area and had | |
repeatedly taken to Twitter to encourage local people to help | |
"bring the wee man hame", also expressed his sorrow. "So sad about | |
wee Mikaeel but couldn't be more proud of where I come from & | |
the amazing people there who tried everything to help out," he | |
tweeted. | |
Members of the public lay tributes in Ferry Gate Crescent near the home of Mikaeel Kular | Members of the public lay tributes in Ferry Gate Crescent near the home of Mikaeel Kular |
Denise Fergus, the mother of James Bulger, the | |
two-year-old murdered in Liverpool in 1993, tweeted her | |
condolences, saying: "My heart is aching for that poor boy Mikaeel | |
Kular brings it all back so sad." | |
The Scottish parliamentarian Colin Keir, who had helped to look | |
for Mikaeel, said the local community in Edinburgh was feeling | |
"battered and bruised". He added: "I know exactly how these people | |
are feeling. It's difficult not to get personally involved." But Mr | |
Keir urged people not to let their emotions result in a rush to | |
judgement. | |
"There's a post-mortem that has to happen. We need to find out | |
how the young Mikaeel died and when he died, then we can start | |
piecing things together," he said. | |
Local councillor Cammy Day, who was due to speak at a memorial | |
service for the young boy at a local church on Saturday night, said | |
the community was "absolutely devastated". | |
He praised the "wonderful, strong community spirit" displayed | |
during the search for the boy, and said he hoped it would not be | |
damaged by "the odd few ridiculous comments" made on social | |
media. | |
"I'm hopeful there will be no repercussions locally. I know the | |
police are doing something on that," Mr Day said. "We should not be | |
making any assumptions, we should be leaving the investigation to | |
police." |