STV NewsA jury has been told by the trial judge that it must find Andrew Innes guilty of murdering a woman and her two-year-old daughter.
Andrew Innes, 52, is accused of murdering Bennylyn Burke, 25, and Jellica Burke at his Dundee home between February 20 and March 5, 2021, as well as sexually abusing the toddler and raping another girl.
He admitted to killing them but denied their murder, and had submitted a defence of lacking criminal responsibility and diminished responsibility.
But in his summing up, Lord Beckett told the jury at the High Court in Edinburgh that these could no longer be upheld after the evidence of Dr Gordan Cowan as to the accused’s mental state.
Lord Beckett told the jury on Monday: “I’m directing you on charges one and two you will return a verdict of guilty.”
The instruction came after advocate depute Alex Prentice told the jury on the fifth day of the trial the police officers who arrived at Innes’ Troon Avenue address on March 5 2021 “wouldn’t have contemplated the awful secrets” the home kept when they were checking on the status of the missing woman.
“They didn’t accept at face value the explanation Andrew Innes provided,” he told the court.
“They sensed something was not right and they were correct.”
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