THE wife of Alistair Wilson, the murdered bank manager, said yesterday that she and their two young sons needed to knowwhy he was killed before they could start to build a life without him.

A few hours after hundreds of friends and family gathered for a memorial service in Nairn yesterday, his widowwent in front of the cameras for the first time to make an emotional plea to anybody with any information about the killer to come forward.

The 30-year-old was gunned down at point blank range on Sunday, November 28, at his home in Crescent Road, Nairn.

Veronica Wilson, 33, said yesterday: "I do appreciate everyone's help and support, but the only thing that can help is to find out who did this.

"If you know anything please come forward, this is just unreal and I don't knowwhy someone has done this.

"I don't know why anyone would do this to us, but for our two young boys we need to knowwhy."

Mr Wilson was shot on his own doorstep by an unknown man who had asked

for him by name when his wife had opened the door. Mr Wilson came to the door, spoke to the man and at one point came back into the house with a blue or green A4 envelope.

When he returned to the door to resume the conversation he was shot three times.

Neither the caller nor the envelope have been seen since.

Mrs Wilson and the couple's two young sons are now believed to be living under armed police guard at a secret location.

Speaking yesterday at Northern Constabulary's Inverness headquarters, Mrs Wilson was pale and fought to control her emotions as she read a statement and answered questions.

She said: "Three weeks ago my life was torn apart. All of us are still coming to terms with what happened on that night and we are still asking questions.

"Our lives since then have been an emotional rollercoaster. Every day we are asking who? We are asking why? We are asking what for? These questions will haunt us for the rest of our lives.

"Al and the boys had a great Christmas last year and I wish I had known it was to be our last. I don't knowwhat the next few days will hold in the run-up to Christmas, as it couldn't be further from our minds. We need to be together now as a family, without the bond that held us together and the boys will have to accept they are to spend their first Christmas without their dad.

"I pray the police find the man who did this to my family.

Only then will our questions be answered. I thank the people of Nairn for theirmessages of support, but I now ask that everyone now allows me and the boys to begin to rebuild our lives, try to move on."

She said the memorial service had been a help. "I see Al's picture. I hear every day that he has been murdered, but it is still so unreal. It was a small step forward to have met his close friends and colleagues.

"The family has been a huge support, although a lot of them are as shell-shocked as myself.

They are here today and we are still together for the boys. The boys need a future. They need a Christmas and that's what's holding us all together."

She said her son Andrew, four, was more aware of what was happening than Graham, who is just two and a half. "But this is something we have never discussed, killing, guns and death.

"So he has a lot of questions, but I am not too sure how much he understands."

Before the news conference, she attended the poignant memorial service she had arranged in St Ninian's Church, Nairn, and had shaken hands with the 250 or so people there.

Her boys did not go.

The 50-minute service was conducted by locum minister the Rev Tony Livesley, who described it as a "celebration of life".

Mourners at the service included Detective Chief Inspector Peter MacPhee, the officer leading the murder inquiry. Officers from Northern Constabulary were on patrol around the church during and after the service.

Mr Livesley said afterwards "Mrs Wilson was as cheerful and as bright as could be expected . . . She didn't mind that the church was decorated for Christmas, she said 'life must go on'."