A MAN has told a court he found his girlfriend lying dead on her living room floor as her children slept upstairs.
Philip Kilkenny, 42, said Leighanne Cameron, 29, was already dead in a pool of blood when he entered her house in Mid Calder, West Lothian, on October 28 last year.
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He told the High Court in Paisley that her children, Erin and Jamie, who were four and 18 months old at the time, were asleep in their bedroom upstairs.
Turkish immigrant Erhan Havaleoglu, Ms Cameron’s estranged husband, is on trial accused of murdering her.
He denies hitting her on the head with an object and repeatedly striking her on the head and body with a knife or similar implement, killing her.
Mr Havaleoglu, 36, is also charged with assaulting three other women in an alleged eight-year campaign of violence throughout Scotland.
He is currently on trial at the High Court in Paisley and has lodged a special defence of incrimination, blaming the murder on Mr Kilkenny.
Mr Kilkenny denied yesterday he was responsible, breaking down in tears as he told the jury he found his lover’s body.
Mr Kilkenny, a glass technician, said he had been working during the day and had made plans to go to Ms Cameron’s home after his work.
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He said that, when he entered her home, he was met with the sight of her lying dead on the floor.
He sobbed as he explained: “I opened the living room door – I saw Leighanne lying on the floor.
“She was lying on her front facing the door. There was a lot of blood all around her. Her glasses were in her right hand.
"I just screamed out her name a few times.”
Mr Kilkenny’s 999 call was played to the court.
In it, he could be heard telling the operator he had found Ms Cameron dead.
He said in the recording: “Someone’s been killed – it’s my girlfriend ... I think it’s her ex-husband.”
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The trial, before Temporary Judge Johanna Johnstone QC continues.
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