THE man accused of the "limbs in the loch killing" of a Scottish teenager is being sent back to Britain to stand trial for murder.

The Court of Justice in The Hague has refused an application for an injunction to block the extradition of former Teesside Polytechnic student William Beggs, 37.

Beggs, of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, faces charges of abduction, murder and attempting to pervert the course of justice over the murder of Barry Wallace.

The severed limbs of 18-year-old Mr Wallace, also from Kilmarnock, were found days after he disappeared, following a night out in the town in December 1999.

Mr Wallace was last seen alive on December 5, after going to a Christmas party with colleagues from the town's Tesco supermarket.

Police divers found his severed arms and legs during a routine exercise at Rowardennan, Loch Lomond. His torso was discovered by police at Manse Bay, Balmaha, Loch Lomond.

A week later, his head was found in a plastic bag by a woman walking her dog on Barassie Beach, near Troon, Ayrshire, 60 miles away.

Beggs, originally from Moira, County Down, Northern Ireland, has denied the killing and fought applications to extradite him from Holland on the grounds that "negative" media coverage would jeopardise his chances of receiving a fair trial.

Last April, judges in Amsterdam granted him an appeal against extradition, but Dutch justice minister Benk Kothals later upheld a decision by the Supreme Court of the Netherlands to quash the appeal.

Beggs then applied for an injunction to stop him being forced to return to the UK.

He had already left Britain for Holland by the time he was charged with the murder.

He has been held in custody at the De Schans remand centre, in Amsterdam, since handing himself in to police in the city a few days after Christmas 1999, following a warrant being issued for his arrest.

During his time in the North-East in the 1980s, Beggs was a regional chairman of the Federation of Conservative Students in Teesside.