THE family of a Scots academic who vanished in Italy more than two years ago have launched a legal bid to have him declared dead.
David Kelso, a former chief inspector of education, was 65 when he disappeared while on his usual afternoon walk in the hills near his holiday home in the Calabria region of southern Italy.
An extensive search was launched at the time involving police, mountain rescuers and firefighters, but he has never been found.
The father-of-three, from Carluke, South Lanarkshire, spent part of the year in Italy and was a well-known supporter of the Esperanto language.
His relatives made appeals for his safe return after his disappearance on November 15, 2010, and set up a Facebook page asking for help.
An appeal for information was also broadcast on Italian television.
However, Mr Kelso's son Andrew, a neurology consultant, has asked a court in Scotland to formally declare that his father is dead.
His application to Lanark Sheriff Court states he believes his father to be dead and that there is no evidence he may have been alive after the date of his disappearance.
Anyone who wishes to oppose this has until March 27 to do so before a sheriff's ruling.
It is thought the family have made the bid under the Presumption of Death Act to settle Mr Kelso's financial affairs.
The former lecturer served as Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Further and Higher Education in Scotland until his retirement in 2000.
In an appeal posted online a month after his father went missing, Andrew Kelso told how the family's hopes were fading.
He said: "Although we all still hope he might be alive and well somewhere, we have to be realistic, and are starting to accept that this is extremely unlikely."
Mr Kelso had fallen in love with the small Italian village of San Pantaleone since visiting it for the first time while on holiday more than a decade ago.
He was said to have loved the landscape and slow pace of life and decided to buy a house.
He would go on daily hikes in the surrounding hills and mountains and neighbours alerted police when he did not return on the day of his disappearance.
At the time, his home was in perfect order. His mobile phone, laptop and car were still there.
Mr Kelso had a lifelong interest in Esperanto, the language created to allow people from different countries to speak to each other on an equal footing.
He had served as the president of the Scottish Esperanto Association, and fellow speakers have appealed for his return.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article