A £90,000 fundraiser has been launched by Jill Barclay’s friends to fund the purchase and demolition of the house where her body was found.

£20,000 has been donated so far.

Jill’s partner Leon Grant, 49, wants to raze the derelict Farburn Gatehouse in Dyce and has agreed a price with the current owners.

The site was purchased at auction for £76,000 just days before Jill’s murder, by Glasgow-based businessmen Hafiza Abid and Shahzad Hassan who finalised the deal on September 2, 2022.

Dyce councillor Graeme Lawrence, with the help councillor Tauqeer Malik, negotiated a deal on behalf of Mr Grant – with the owners agreeing to sell at cost plus their commissions and legal fees at a total price of £87,000.

Now Mr Grant, with the help of some of Jill’s closest friends, have launched a Go Fund Me page in order to finance the sale and also cover the costs of demolition and clearing the site – their target is £90,000.

Mr Grant says he will not be building a memorial, but has approached the Dyce Gardening Club to enquire of they would take the space on.

The new Go Fund Me page, named Friends of Jill Barclay, is aiming to raise £90,000. A spokeswoman for the group said they hoped the community would get behind the idea, adding:

“Jill was such a good person, and got me through quite a difficult time when I had post-natal depression.

“We are doing this for Leon and the kids. We don’t want them to have the added stress and trauma of having to pass this house every day. We know Jill would not have wanted them to go through any extra upset.

“Those kids are going to grow up having to pass it every time they go to the train station or Asda, so we want to erase any bad memories – I just know that is a trauma she would not have wanted for her children.

 “I don’t think anyone in Dyce wants that house to be there – it’s an unfortunate blot on Dyce and it has to go.

“Leon should not be penalised any further because of what happened to Jill at the hands of that person.

“He just should not be saddled with the extra financial burden getting rid of the house – he has already been robbed of so much.”

Gillian Gove, 45, was a close friend of Jill’s and is one of the people who helped raise funds for her family in the immediate aftermath of her murder.

“We were kindred spirits, and we were similar ages – and we just clicked. We weren’t friends for very long, we met as mums – but it was special,” said Gillian.

“I hate driving past that house, it’s sitting there like a ghost. The house just shouldn’t be there or left the way it is.

“Something nicer there, like a garden or planting would be better – make it a nice area and get rid of the horrible memories.”

“It must be torture for Leon. It’s lovely that things have been left there by people to pay respects, and they are treasured – but its hanging on this dreadful thing that happened there.

“The police put the fence up to keep people out, but now after all that information has come out at the court case, its human nature or curiosity I suppose that some people might want to go and look.

“We all have imaginations, and on reading it through it’s visual in my head – it must be horrendous for Leon.”

You can donate to the fund here: