A woman yesterday admitted killing and robbing a trainee restaurant manager.
Marion Hinshelwood, 43, pled guilty in the High Court at Glasgow to the culpable homicide of Eleni Pachou at Di Maggio's restaurant in the city's west end in May.
Miss Pachou, 25, from Greece, was found apparently stabbed to death in the restaurant, just metres away from bustling Byres Road.
Ms Hinshelwood had originally faced murder charges, but prosecutors accepted her plea of guilty to the reduced charge negotiated by her QC Donald Findlay.
Her former co-accused, Juan Carlos Crispin, denies murdering Miss Pachou.
Ms Hinshelwood admitted killing the restaurant worker at Di Maggio's Italian restaurant in Ruthven Lane on May 29 or May 30.
The charge heard yesterday stated that the young woman was struck on the head and body with a knife or similar instrument before being robbed of a set of keys.
A safe was then opened in the restaurant and a sum of £1320 was stolen, before an unsuccessful attempt to open a second safe.
At an earlier court appearance in October, Ms Hinshelwood was accused of having bought a knife, and she was also said to have checked the rota for Di Maggio's restaurant to confirm that Miss Pachou was due to lock up alone on May 29.
It was alleged that she and Mr Crispin tried to cover up the crime the next day by disposing of clothing and a weapon that may have been used.
Mr Crispin, 37, a former waiter, is due to stand trial early in the new year. He was represented yesterday by Paul McBride QC, who said his client denied committing the murder and also denied two charges of attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
Miss Pachou's brother, Spiro, a student at Strathclyde University, was at the hearing yesterday.
He left his studies to fly home to Greece in advance of his sister's body being repatriated in early summer this year.
Bosses at Di Maggio's reportedly contributed at least £10,000 towards the cost of her transport home and her funeral.
Miss Pachou had been in Glasgow for only a short time before she was killed, but those who knew her said she was popular with many friends in the city.
Though her family are based in Greece, the Pachous have strong links with Scotland. The elder of her brothers, Mark, also earned a degree in Glasgow.
Her father, Yiannis Pachou, travelled to the city in the days after his daughter's death. The 65-year-old was heartbroken by the family's loss, and called for his daughter's killer to face the full penalty of the law.
"I am not seeking vengeance. All I hope is that justice is done and I can take Eleni back home to Greece," he said at the time. "I had the dream to visit Glasgow upon Spiro's graduation, but as we all saw, someone else had different plans. I am now here - a year earlier - under these circumstances."
Judge Lord Brailsford adjourned the case for a further preliminary hearing next month.
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