A man who murdered a woman in a motiveless attack and then dismembered her body has been jailed for life.
Steven Jackson, 40, landed around 10 hammer blows on Kimberley MacKenzie's head before stabbing her about 40 times.
He then cut up the 37-year-old's body in a bath, before dumping the parts in bins in Montrose, Angus, in October 2015 with the help of his partner.
Jackson was convicted of the brutal murder and of attempting to pervert the course of justice at a trial at the High Court in Glasgow last month.
Judge Lady Rae handed him a mandatory life term and ordered him to spend a minimum of 26 years behind bars when she passed sentence at the High Court in Livingston on Tuesday.
She also sentenced his girlfriend and co-accused Michelle Higgins to eight years' imprisonment for attempting to pervert the course of justice by helping Jackson cover up his crime.
The judge said: "The behaviour of both of you was despicable and callous. The killing appears to have been a wholly motiveless and brutal murder of a defenceless woman."
She added: "What you both did to the body of the deceased shows a level of depravity thankfully not often seen in these courts."
Ms MacKenzie had suffered "devastating" injuries to her skull and brain, which led to her death. She also sustained approximately 40 blade injuries, many of which were inflicted when she was still alive.
Jackson, who was on several bail orders at the time of the killing, went on to boast about what he had done.
Lady Rae said: "What is even more concerning is that you appear to have told a social worker that, faced with a dead body in similar circumstances, you would feel constrained to act in a similar fashion.
"Unlike your co-accused, you have expressed no remorse whatsoever for your criminal actions."
Lady Rae's sentencing statement was released following the hearing by the Judicial Office for Scotland.
The judge fixed Jackson's minimum jail term at 26 years in light of the nature and brutality of the crime and various aggravating factors.
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