A CONVICTED killer has begun a new legal challenge to overturn his conviction for murdering his wife.
David Lilburn, 51, was ordered to serve a minimum of 19 years after he was found guilty of murdering Ann, 43, at their home in Paisley, Renfrewshire, after she was stabbed 86 times.
Lilburn's lawyers said he should be convicted of the lesser charge of culpable homicide on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
His trial at the High Court in Glasgow in 2008 heard a "black shadow" had told him to commit the crime.
An earlier appeal was rejected by judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh but Lilburn's case has now been referred back to the court by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission. The SCCRC said it was referring the case "on the basis of fresh psychiatric evidence that his responsibility was diminished".
Advocate depute Gillian Wade QC told Lord Eassie, sitting with Lord Bracadale and Lord Wheatley, that it was anticipated that it was an appeal in which evidence would require to be led.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article