A BISEXUAL man who strangled his wife in bed and lay beside her until
morning was yesterday jailed for life at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Coach driver Roderick McDonald, 37, of Southhouse Broadway, Edinburgh,
who had denied murder, said he had no memory of killing his wife
Elizabeth, 36.
He had awoken on November 23, last year, to find her dead in bed
beside him and with his arm encircling her neck.
McDonald had told the court how his wife had banned three-in-a bed sex
sessions with him and his lover, Mr Graham Russell, 37.
She had also told her husband, with whom she was being reconciled
after a temporary separation, that she would not stay with him until he
had ended his 19-year homosexual relationship with Mr Russell.
McDonald told the court he had ordered Mr Russell to leave the house
just hours before he had awoken to find his wife dead.
He said he and his wife had sat on the sofa drinking, listening to
music and making love. But he had no memory of going uptairs to bed or
lying down.
He said he awoke and felt as if ''an explosion or camera flash'' had
gone off inside his head. His wife lay beside him with the nape of her
neck in the crook of his arm.
The jury of eight men and seven women returned a majority verdict of
guilty.
Lord Penrose told McDonald there was only one sentence for murder --
life imprisonment.
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