SEVERED HEAD a Year On: POLICE Still REFUSE to RELEASE DETAILS of Edinburgh's Most Gruesome Incident

What exactly are they trying to hide?

Gruesome Discovery

On the evening of Saturday 2nd November 2024, a reveller in Edinburgh’s Cowgate area of the city stumbled across what he first thought was a grotesque Halloween prop — a severed human head lying in the middle of the road.

When he picked it up, the horrific truth dawned on him. It was real. Perfectly intact. Cleanly severed. Yet bizarrely, there was no body nearby — and, most chillingly of all, not a single drop of blood on the tarmac.

Within minutes police threw a huge cordon around the Old Town street, erecting screens on South Bridge to hide the scene from view. By the next morning Police Scotland issued a short statement saying 74-year-old Michael Leneghan had died after being “hit by a bus”.

One year later, that remains the official — and only — explanation. No bus has ever been traced. No driver has ever come forward. And, astonishingly, Mr Leneghan’s body has never been found. Nor, for that matter, has anyone ever explained how exactly eight pints of blood simply vanished from the scene of a supposedly catastrophic road accident.

The questions that have haunted the case from day one remain unanswered:

• How can a bus decapitate a man so cleanly that the head is left “perfectly intact”?

• How did the vehicle then remove the entire torso — and all the blood — without anyone noticing?

• Why has the bus itself never been located, despite Edinburgh’s blanket CCTV coverage?

• Who was the driver and why hasn’t he come forward?

• And why, a full 12 months later, are both Police Scotland and City of Edinburgh Council now refusing to release what they know about the incident?

The official silence, looks like a cover-up

Freedom of Information requests submitted to both the council and the police have met a wall of refusals and redactions. When one requester asked City of Edinburgh Council for internal emails and any safety reviews after the incident, officials eventually released just a handful of heavily-redacted messages, claiming further disclosure would “substantially inhibit the free and frank exchange of views” under Section 30(b)(ii) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act.

In response to a freedom of information request Police Scotland made the astonishing statement:

"Whilst I appreciate the reasons why you might wish this information, I also have to consider the wider implications of the public release of certain information as a release of information under this Act is, essentially, a release of such sensitive information into the public domain.

I wholly acknowledge that public awareness may favour disclosure as it would contribute to the public debate surrounding the police handling of the enquiry. Nevertheless, the efficient and effective conduct of the service and public safety favours retention of the information as it cannot be in the public interest to release information that would prejudice law enforcement.  Bereaved families may suffer harm if sensitive or upsetting detail is disclosed publicly.  Information about investigations will only ever be disclosed by Police Scotland where there are overwhelming public interest considerations favouring disclosure.

I can find no corresponding argument in terms of placing this document in the public domain and accordingly it is assessed that the public interest lies firmly in refusing disclosure."

But even more telling was the police response to a simple question: “What is Police Scotland’s reasoning & evidence behind the claim that Mr Leneghan’s death was caused by collision with a bus?” Answer: “I am refusing to confirm or deny whether the information sought exists or is held…”

As we pointed out in our original article, the official narrative strains credulity to breaking point. A single-decker bus travelling at 20mph in a busy nightlife area somehow severs a pedestrian’s head, drags away the entire body, leaves no blood trail, returns to its depot undamaged — and nobody on board or on the street notices a thing.

One whistleblower claiming links to the emergency services has reportedly told campaigners the scene “did not look like any road traffic collision” they had ever attended.  Yet anyone daring to question the “bus” story online has faced stern warnings from Police Scotland “not to speculate” or share footage “out of respect for the family” — the same tactic used in the controversial aftermath of the Southport stabbings.

Michael Leneghan’s grieving relatives have asked for privacy, a request that has been repeatedly cited to shut down debate. But many are now asking whether that tragedy is being used as a shield to prevent legitimate scrutiny.

A year on, the people of Edinburgh — and the wider public — still have no idea what really happened on Cowgate that night. No body. No bus. No answers.

And as long as the authorities continue to hide behind legal exemptions and “neither confirm nor deny”, the suspicion will only grow that the truth is far darker than a tragic traffic accident.

Police Scotland and City of Edinburgh Council were approached for comment. Both declined to add anything to their previous statements.

Police Scotland Statement: Here