My full name if [sic] Paul Donnachie. I live at 21 Spinnaker Way, Dalgety Bay, Fife, KYI I 9GH. My date of birth is 18 March 1962. I work offshore as a material controller with the Aberdeen based company Salamis, through Marathon Oil.
I met William McClung about 20 years ago through the circle of friends we both had at that time. William was already working off shore at the time. I was interested in going that way and we struck up a friendship. Although I worked off shore, my work pattern was generally to have two weeks at home every month. Of these two weeks, I would generally spend about 2 to 3 days of each week doing things with William. I would say that I might see Jacqueline Carrigan at William's house occasionally during these periods at home, perhaps once a week.
William and Jacqueline had a strange relationship. They broke up on various occasions, she would go missing for months and then suddenly the phone would start ringing again. He was the type of person who would not be nasty to anyone so when she started ringing, he would have found it difficult to completely ignore her. I think he would try to let her back into his life as a friend, mostly in the hope that some of the money he had loaned to her for training and so on would eventually be repaid but it never was. William's relationship with Jacqueline was often strained. He confided that he had finished it on many occasions. I think he tried to remain friends with her in the hope that she repaid some of the £10,000 he had loaned her for her various training courses to help her gain employment and also for the purchase of a car.
I am aware that in the weeks or months prior to William's death, he broke up with Jacqueline again. It was definitely a final thing. This time he packed up the things belonging to her which were in his house and left them in her car outside. His words to me were "new house, new year, new woman".
I am also aware that at the close of their relationship, he was unable to answer the phone as he was bombarded with torrents of abuse and threats. I am sure that he did not confide the total extent of the harassment to me.
Jacqueline never really attended social events with William. For example, my parents would often invite William round for Christmas lunch. He would never take Jacqueline, this being his decision. The reason he wouldn't take her is because of her drink problem. If you go back about ten years, I believe that stealing miniatures or her drinking was the reason for her losing a job with an Edinburgh based airline. William told me two or three times that Jacqueline had arrived at his door unannounced in a drunken state. She had driven up from Winchburgh to his cottage in Fife, drunk. I think that this was the reason that William wasn't keen for her to be seen by other people, for example his friends and family. In the twenty years I knew William, I have had maybe four different houses. Jacqueline was never brought into any of them.
When I stayed in Kirkcaldy and went off shore, I would leave a key with William. That was about four years ago, two years before he died. I did this so he could go out on the town in Kirkcaldy. This was when he was renovating his own cottage. At this time, he was also seeing a girl named Dayner from Glasgow. He met her in Victoria's night club in Glasgow. I introduced them. This was during an "off period between him and Jacqueline. William and Dayner had a relationship for several months. This was the last female I remember William seeing other than Jacqueline. Dayner spent a weekend with William at my home in Kirkcaldy when they were together.
I would explain that when I was home from work, we would mainly meet at my mother's house where we would be fed and topped up with many cups of tea. William felt close to my mother and opened up to her about many things in his life that he didn't discuss with me. He talked of memories of his mother making butter and also about the pigs they used to keep. William was a constant part of our family and we all felt he was someone you could rely on. Jacqueline tried to call my parents in about January, after William's death. I told them not to pass on my number to her because I did not want to speak to her. I believe she was trying to make contact with me to find out what had happened to William. She is the kind of person who is always up for a fast buck and I do not want to be involved with her family. Jacqueline has a history of making fraudulent claims with insurance companies. William told me that on one occasion, maybe five or six years ago, Jacqueline had turned on the taps in her home with the intention of flooding it. She said it was the children and claimed on the insurance. William told me that Jacqueline's sister had done the same thing.
I am asked whether I believe there may be any truth in a suggestion that William lived with Jacqueline at her Winchburgh home. He may have stayed with Jacqueline at Winchburgh now and then but I would not state things any more highly than that.
William was always clear that whenever he was gone, he wanted the house to go to his nieces and to make sure they benefited. He always talked so fondly of them all his family.
