Horror in Arbroath

Arbroath is home to about 20,000 people. It's a small, seaside fishing village with rows of small cottages facing a pebble beach, a harbour with fishing boats and family run fish shops with smokeries.

The sea is their livelihood here - and it's as unpredictable as the weather. But yesterday the beach revealed more than just driftwood and tin cans.

Two sisters, playing on the beach, approached a black bag and looked inside. What they found was nothing short of horrifying.

The severed head of a young woman, in her mid 20s or 30s. As if that wasn't bad enough, two hands were found nearby.

Abroath, for the time being, has ceased to be a quiet, sleepy seaside village. We were sent from C4's Northern bureau in Manchester yesterday. By the time we arrived the police had closed off the beach. Officers were picking through the pebbles and shingles pressing flags into the beach indicating where the body parts were found.

The detective leading this investigation, DCI Greame McMillian, was only appointed two days ago - and already has a major murder on his hands.

I've just spoken to him in Arbroath where he told me that the woman had a scar on her forehead, brown eyes and eyebrows and significantly, he said, her ears hadn't been pierced.

She looked European - one possible line of enquiry will focus on a rapidly growing migrant community here in the Arbroath. Crucial is finding out who she was, and why she died in such a horrific manner.

As I write the police are re-opening the beach. Local children are running over the pebbles once again seemingly oblivious to the horrors of the day before.

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