Shetland murder: Man guilty of stabbing girlfriend to death in hot tub

A man has been found guilty of murdering his girlfriend in a hot tub in Shetland.

Aren Pearson, 41, stabbed 24-year-old Claire Leveque to death at his mother’s home in Sandness on 11 February last year.

The couple, who are both from Canada, had moved to Scotland in 2023.

Pearson denied murder and claimed in court that Ms Leveque had stabbed herself – but a jury found him guilty after a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh. He was jailed for life, and will serve a minimum of 25 years.

Ms Leveque died after being stabbed more than 25 times on her neck and chest.

Police said Pearson had a “controlling and violent” relationship with Ms Leveque, and had attempted to degrade and abuse her before the murder.

Det Insp Richard Baird said: “The level of violence Aren Pearson inflicted is truly horrifying.”

Pearson admitted stabbing Ms Leveque in a call to a 999 operator and also confessed to police officers at the crime scene.

Jurors heard that Pearson’s late mother Hazel Pearson, who died in May, had told police that on the evening of the murder her son had walked into the kitchen and returned with a knife.

He stabbed himself in the neck and told her that he had hurt his girlfriend.

Ms Pearson then found Ms Leveque in the hot tub, which was in a shed at her home.

“The water was red with blood,” she told police.

“Claire was covered with blood. She had severe injuries to her face.”

Ms Pearson phoned 999 to raise the alarm.

She told detectives that her son had looked like “a zombie” after the attack.

During the 999 call, Pearson took the phone and confessed to the killing. He said he had stabbed his girlfriend about 40 times.

However, giving evidence at the trial he claimed Ms Leveque had struck him, grabbed a knife and then jumped into the hot tub, where she stabbed herself four or five times.

Pearson claimed she had lost her temper after hearing him speak to her father Clint in Canada about how much alcohol she was drinking.

After being detained by police, Pearson was taken to the Gilbert Bain Hospital in Lerwick.

The jury heard that he said he had stabbed himself in the neck, consumed brake fluid and driven his Porsche car into the water.

A&E consultant Dr Caroline Heggie treated him for two days following his arrest.

Prosecutor Margaret Barron asked Dr Heggie if Pearson had said something that stuck with her.

She replied: “He said: ‘I’ve been trying to get rid of her for a while’.”

Ms Leveque’s father Clint said his daughter had been “happy, positive and so friendly to everybody”.

Speaking to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Mr Leveque said his daughter was “a typical daddy’s girl”.

“My daughter texted me every night: ‘I love you dad’. Every night of her life,” he said.

“There’s nothing negative that anybody could possibly say about her.”

Mr Leveque said his daughter, who grew up in Westloch, Alberta, had a love of adventure.

“There’s no words to describe this whole situation,” he added.

Hope Saunders, who still lives in Canada, was a close friend of Ms Leveque.

“It’s sickening that someone so bright and so young and so beautiful could have her life taken away from her in the flash of a moment like that,” she said.

“It is hard to comprehend and it gives you that sick feeling in your stomach, and her being so far away in the Shetland Islands breaks my heart even more.

“I don’t want to even think about how scared she might have been in that moment.”

Andrea Manson, the convenor of Shetland Islands Council, said she hoped that the guilty verdict brought some closure to Ms Leveque’s family.

“In a normally safe and caring community the tragic loss of a beautiful young lass is a tragedy that’s being felt by everyone in Shetland,” she said.