Family Horror
Sister reveals heartbreak over ‘golden boy’ brother who killed their mum before pawning her gold and going clubbing
Lorraine Taggart's brother Ross strangled his mum and buried her under a caravan
A DEVASTATED woman has spoken out about the horror of finding out her mother had been murdered – by her ‘golden boy’ brother.
Ross Taggart, from the Scottish town of Dunfermline, murdered his 54-year-old mother Carol in December 2014, just days before Christmas.
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After throttling her, he buried her body under a mobile home in a nearby caravan park – then he pawned her jewellery, used her credit card to buy tickets to The Hunger Games and went clubbing.
Now his sister and father have revealed how mummy’s boy Ross wielded power over Carol in new documentary on CI.
In Britain’s Darkest Taboos, Carol’s ex-husband Shaun said: “She just thought the sun shone out of his backside. He was the golden boy.”
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Ross’s sister Lorraine said: “At the age of 19, my mum and dad separated because of Ross and the arguments he caused in the house.
“The three of us – Ross, myself and my mum – did live together for a few years after they separated and he seemed to enjoy that, being the man of the house.
“As we got older, I started to think Ross was a user, and that he was bleeding my mum dry. I told her ‘He’s going to turn against you or he’s going to use you and you’ll have nothing left.’”
Lorraine said she began to worry about Ross’s behaviour towards his mum, as he showed no signs of leaving home even at 30.
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She said: “Why would the son hang around the mum so long? He hung around so long because he was going to get everything he wanted.
“He started to argue a lot with my mum which I didn’t like because I didn’t like his tone.
“It was bossy, ‘I’ll get my own way’ type of thing which was not nice to watch. I’m the little sister in all this, watching my older brother talk to my mum that way.”
After Lorraine married and left home she stopped speaking to her brother.
But just before Christmas, in 2014, she saw Ross had tried to call her while she was out shopping with her husband Stephen.
She said: “My stomach started to churn.”
She added: “Stephen phoned Ross back and he said, ‘Mum’s missing.’ We thought nothing of it and I went on with my day.”
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But Lorraine, 27, started to worry when she tried to call her mum and got no reply.
She said: “I knew something was wrong. My mum always answered and her phone was always with her, either in her hand or in her handbag next to her.
“I couldn’t understand why it was off.”
Ross, 33, had reported Carol missing and, in a chilling call played on the programme, he is heard telling the operator: “We had an argument and I would hate to think after an argument that she’s went and done something.”
Two days later, on Christmas day, 2014, police found Carol’s abandoned car,
A tearful Lorraine recalled: “At 7 0’clock, we got a phone call to say they’d found the car. I knew then that she was gone.”
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On Boxing Day Ross was caught on CCTV calmly walking into Dunfermline police station to ask if there was any more news on his mother.
He said: “My name’s Ross Taggart and my mum’s missing. They found her car last night and I’ve not heard anything since.”
But a few days later, Lorraine and Shaun got the news they had been dreading.
Shaun said: “About 8 o’clock in the morning we got that knock on the door again and Stephen flew down the stairs.”
“That’s when they told us. They’d found a body.”
Lorraine added: “I didn’t say anything. I looked at my dad and then Stephen and I could see they were broken.”
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Ross was found guilty of Carol’s murder at Edinburgh Crown Court in November 2015, and was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
The judge, Lord Uist, told him: “How you have lived with your conscience since you murdered your mother, I do not know.
"You have been convicted by the unanimous verdict of the jury of the terrible crime of the murder of your own mother, a woman who did a great deal, indeed probably too much, for you in the course of her life.”
The court heard that Carol, a nursery owner, had suffered a head injury during a row at their home and had then been throttled by her son.
Ross has then tried to pawn her diamond ring but failed, instead accepting £100 for a gold bracelet.
Britain’s Darkest Taboos is on Sundays at 9pm on CI
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