A MAN accused of murdering his wife - because she was planning to leave him and seeking a cash pay-off - today claimed he was at work at the time.
Nat Fraser (53) also claims that if wife, Arlene, was murdered 14 years ago, another person was to blame for the crime.
The so called "special defences" of alibi and incrimination were read to a jury of eight women and seven men at the start of a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.
The jury were also assured by judge Lord Bracadale that, although the trial was being filmed for the purposes of a TV documentary to be screened at a later date, the cameras would not focus on them at any stage.
Fraser denies murdering Arlene, between April 28 and May 7 1998.
It is alleged that the 33-year-old mum was attacked in the home they once shared in Smith Street, New Elgin, or elsewhere and either strangled or killed "by other means to the prosecutor unknown".
The indictment read to a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh claims that Fraser knew his wife wanted a divorce and had gone to a solicitor to see about getting a financial settlement.
Fraser, it is alleged, along with another or other unknown persons arranged the "surreptitious purchase" of a car with a boot and set fire to a car outside the Smith Street address before the attack on Arlene.
After jurors took their places, the clerk of court read to them papers lodged in court to indicate an outline of Fraser's defence.
The alibi described how Fraser left the address where he was staying in Burnside Road, Llanbryde, on April 28, 1998 about 7.30am and spent the day making deliveries to shops, hotels and restaurants in the area - pausing just after 9am to make a half hour phone call.
The man he names as the possible murderer is Hector Dick of Wester Hillside Farm, Mosstowie, Elgin.
The trial continues.
