Sputnik: The situation would not be out of place in a Shakespearian drama, what exactly are you and Lorrain Bristow Taggart are fighting for?
Stephen Bristow: Four years ago, Ross Taggart murdered Carol Taggart, which is my wife’s mother, who was murdered by my wife’s brother. For the last three and a half years since Ross was sentenced and sent to prison for eighteen years, he has been the administrator of her estate. He was named as executive of her will, and we have put in countless requests to access the property to gain personal belongings, memorabilia, and memories. All requests have been denied by Ross Taggart and his lawyers.
Sputnik: There is a loophole in Scots Law that means the Carol Taggart’s estate is still controlled by Ross Taggart, despite his life sentence- how has the Scottish legal system reacted to your campaign?
Stephen Bristow: Although he's the person that murdered Carol, he is still entitled to act as the administrator of the estate — it is obviously a huge flaw in Scottish law. I mean obviously the reason we can't get in is because of a law in Scotland that allows him as executive to administer the estate, but other than a short statement that I've had from the Scottish government Press Office, there's not really been any further information from them in regards to this.
He's doing all of this through his lawyers, and his lawyers are coming back to us. It has got the point now where they are sending letters to us, which pretty much state that they are doing everything in their power to not let us in the house.
Sputnik: The story in itself is quite disturbing, and the outcome perhaps even more so. What was Ross Taggart like and were his actions expected?
Stephen Bristow: He's a monster. He's a self-centered, narcissistic monster. He's not a nice person. He always had an agenda.
He was her blue-eyed boy. That's the sad thing in all of this. Just two months before he killed her, she took him to New York for his thirtieth birthday and spent thousands of pounds on him.
He knew what he was doing. We truly believe it was pre-meditated, and because he is so silly, he didn't realize that if you murder someone and get caught, you will go to jail and you don't get anything.
Sputnik: Your petition has raised over eight thousand signatures so far, what is the aim of the campaign?
Stephen Bristow: The goal for us is to get the photographs and the sentimental items. There's not really an end-game here. There is no monetary worth to us that could say that 'we will give you X amount of money'. That is not the goal here. We are interested in the photographs and the memories. My wife has nothing like that, of her mother because they are all locked away in that house.
But it's not just for me, and it's not just for Lorraine. It's not just our family that we're trying to help here. We're trying to help other people, in case this sort of thing happens in the future, and god-forbid it does to anybody, because it is awful.
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik.
