An inquiry will be held into the apparent drowning of a Highland man who never recovered from the brutal murder of his baby daughter.
Police launched an appeal last year to find missing man Craig Moverley, who struggled to cope after his 17-month-old daughter Karisha White was battered to death two decades ago.
It emerged yesterday that Mr Moverley’s body was later found in a river near Doncaster, and that an inquest will be held into his death in the coming weeks.
Before his disappearance, the 46-year-old had last been seen in Inverness city centre, having lived at addresses in Invergordon, Wick and Lerwick.
He is believed to have moved from Shetland with his then partner Samantha White, who was Karisha’s mother, to start a new life in the Ayrshire town of Girvan in 1995.
But when the couple’s three-year relationship ended, Ms White started seeing 29-year-old bricklayer Allan Rennie, who brutally murdered baby Karisha.
Rennie was jailed for life for battering the defenceless tot to death in a flat in Girvan, while high on drink and drugs, after arguing with Ms White.
A pathologist told the murder trial in 1997 that the injuries were among the worst she had ever seen, comparing the damage to that which would have been caused if a “car had driven over a child’s head”.
Friends said Mr Moverley was never the same after his daughter’s death, and police described him as “vulnerable” when he went missing last year.
He was last seen on Inverness High Street near the Royal Bank of Scotland at 11.45pm, on Sunday, May 10 last year, and was said to have walked in the direction of Ness Bridge.
Police believed he had travelled to the Aberdeen area, and then it was reported that he may have been in Doncaster.
On June 23 last year, the body of a man was found in the River Don, close to Grey Friars’ Bridge, in Doncaster.
It emerged yesterday that the body was that of Mr Moverley, as an inquest into the death was briefly convened in the South Yorkshire town, before being adjourned.
Final reports into the cause of death have still to be filed by the pathologist and a date for the inquest at Doncaster Coroner’s Court will be fixed later.
Six years before his disappearance, Mr Moverley was disqualified from driving for a year after failing to provide a specimen of breath and struggling with police while living at Dunnett Avenue, Wick.
In 2008, two men were accused of attacking Mr Moverley to his severe injury and permanent impairment on Wick High Street, but a jury unanimously returned not proven verdicts against both after a three-day trial at Wick Sheriff Court.
Mr Moverley was believed to have returned to Shetland within months of moving to Ayrshire with Ms White in 1995.
During the murder trial, it emerged that Rennie and Ms White were overheard having a furious row after their telephone was left off the hook.
Angry words were reportedly exchanged before Ms White left the house telling Rennie: “You can tell Karisha why her mummy isn’t here in the morning.”
Moments later, according to Ms White’s sister Diana Taylor: “There was a sore scream which could have lasted ten seconds, then it turned into a moaning noise. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that scream.'”
Karisha was found lying in her bed with horrific injuries.
Rennie was arrested but insisted that any injuries had happened during a fall or had been inflicted by the baby’s mother.
A jury at the High Court in Greenock rejected his claims and returned a unanimous verdict of guilty.
The judge, Lord Macfadyen, told Rennie: “You have been found guilty of a dreadful murder and there is only one sentence which the law prescribes. You will go to prison for life.”
