Google MapsA man is on trial charged with the murder of his wife.
Walter Buchanan is accused of killing Darrel Buchanan at their flat near Hamilton racecourse in Lanarkshire on February 18, 2023.
Prosecutors claim the 66-year-old grabbed Darrel by the wrists, restrained her and repeatedly hit her on the head by means unknown.
Buchanan is then said to have put his hands around the 37-year-old’s neck and covered her nose and mouth.
Buchanan appeared at the High Court in Glasgow for the trial which is expected to last ten days.
A joint minute of agreed evidence was read to jurors by prosecutor David McLean at the start of the trial.
Mr McLean stated that Buchanan made a 999 call and reported that he “woke up at his property to find his wife was cold to the touch.”
Paramedics and ambulance technicians attended and gave Darrel advanced life support, but she was pronounced dead at 7.45am.
Buchanan was later arrested on February 24, 2023, at his sister’s home in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire.
He was forensically examined by a doctor and found to have a scar on his left eyebrow.
Jurors heard the 999 call Buchanan made at 7.12am.
He was heard to tell the call handler: “She was drinking heavily, and she was upset during the night.
“I don’t know if she choked or something like that – I did mouth to mouth there.”
He was then heard to say: “I can’t wake her up.”
The call went on with Buchanan being advised to do chest compressions on Darrel.
He was heard to say “Come on” during the compression attempts.
A paramedic told the court that Darrel had no pulse when she arrived first at the scene.
The witness stated Buchanan told her that he had returned home at 2am that morning and that Darrel went back and forth to the bathroom.
He also stated that Darrel had fallen into a plant pot in the bedroom on an earlier occasion.
She reported that there was soil on the wall.
Iain McSporran KC, defending, asked the witness if Buchanan assisted her the best he could which she replied: “Yes.”
The advocate also put to the woman that his client was “in a state of disbelief” which she agreed.
An ambulance technician stated that Darrel had a dark mark on her forehead and neck.
The witness reported that there was blood on the outside of her right ear.
Buchanan faces a separate charge under the Domestic Abuse Act – the indictment claiming it was racially aggravated.
This spans between April 2019 and the day of the alleged murder.
It lists the same flat in Hamilton Park North as well as Waverley railway station in Edinburgh.
The charge includes claims Buchanan shouted and was offensive as well as allegedly made remarks of a “racial nature”.
The indictment states Buchanan punched Darrel and smacked her with a wooden stick.
It is further said he did “control” Darrel by buying her gifts so she was “indebted” to him.
He also allegedly made her behave in a manner as “directed” by him, with another claim he isolated her from others.
Buchanan is separately charged with assaulting Darrel at Waverley in early 2018 and also behaving in a threatening manner.
The trial continues before Judge Lord Cubie.
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