THE murder case of a Kinglassie man has been delved into in a documentary screened on BBC One.

Expert Witness, which aired on Monday afternoon, showed how three forensic specialists were called into help Police Scotland identify Ean Coutts and then uncover the killer.

David Barnes was sentenced to 23 years imprisonment at the High Court in Glasgow in December last year after previously being convicted of murder and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

Ean was killed at his home in the Fife town before Barnes took his body to an abandoned unit on an industrial estate in Glenrothes where he tried to conceal it.

READ MORE: Cardenden man, 33 jailed for murder of Ean Coutts in Kinglassie

Barnes also used the dead man’s bank card to withdraw money from his account, apply for finance and commit other fraud and theft.

Expert Witness shows how soil specialist, Professor Lorna Dawson, and mite expert Alejandra Perotti were tasked with giving police a time frame on how long the body may have lain at the warehouse.

It also highlights the contribution of facial recognition expert Caroline Wilkinson who provided a profile for the man, allowing the police to make a public appeal for a name.

As explained by the BBC, Caroline’s work paved the way for the identification of 60-year-old Ean Coutts. From there, the police investigation was able to connect an associate of Ean to the murder and convict David Barnes for the horrendous crime.

Barnes' lawyers went to court earlier this year to argue that the 'punishment' part of the sentence was excessive and should be cut.

Appeal judges Lord Beckett, Lord Matthews and Lord Doherty heard that because of the condition of Mr Coutts’s body, police were unable to establish the exact means by how he was murdered.

The judges heard that their colleague Lord Mulholland should have taken this, and Barnes' "limited" criminal record, into account and passed a lesser punishment part.

READ MORE: Cardenden man who murdered army veteran fails to get prison sentence cut

However, in a written judgement published by the Court of Criminal Appeal on Friday, the judges concluded that he had acted correctly.

Lord Beckett wrote: “We consider that the trial judge was correct in finding that the financial motivation he imputed to the appellant was a significantly aggravating circumstance.

“In common with the trial judge, we cannot conclude anything about the means by which the appellant killed Mr Coutts or the level of violence he used.

“What is significant in this case is that the trial judge found that the appellant committed a calculated, premeditated murder for economic gain by inveigling his way into his victim’s trust, which he then abused.

“The appellant had previous convictions for crimes of dishonesty and a significant assault prosecuted on indictment, which ultimately led to a prison sentence of nine months.

“We have information from victim impact statements, something not referred to in any of the cases on which the appellant founds."

Mr Coutts had tried to help Barnes, of Cardenden, to get a job and he had employed him to carry out renovations in his home.

For his kindness he was murdered at his home in Main Street in September 2019.

Barnes put the body in a wheelie bin and then drove to an abandoned unit at Whitehill industrial estate in Glenrothes.

He left the body in a cupboard and attempted to set fire to the remains.

During the murder trial, the High Court in Edinburgh heard that Barnes had assumed the victim's identity and helped himself to more than £5,000 of his money.

Mr Coutts' skeletal remains were only discovered in September 2020 by an urban explorer, who thought he'd come across animal bones, causing police to launch an investigation.

Barnes was also found guilty of perverting the course of justice, lying to neighbours that Mr Coutts had gone on holiday and moved to England.

After the verdict Detective Inspector Scott Roxburgh had said: “Barnes acted in a callous manner, killing Ean and then pretending to be the dead man.

"He disposed of the body in a horrific way, even setting fire to it to try to dispose of the remains, leaving it in an inaccessible place so that it was only by chance it was found."