Legal News
Abuse Victim Mistakenly Murdered Ex (22 September 2011)
Date: 22/09/2011
A woman who had suffered years of physical and sexual abuse murdered a man with a knife, an Edinburgh court has heard. Robert Brereton, 47, was stabbed 26 times at the home of his former girlfriend Melanie Stevenson in March 2011. Miss Stevenson pleaded guilty to culpable homicide.
Edinburgh’s High Court was told that Miss Stevenson jumped out of the window of her home in Forfar following the stabbing and that the fall resulted in her breaking her hip. Miss Stevenson told police of the abuse she had suffered and claimed that she did not mean to hurt Mr. Brereton.
Jennifer Bain, prosecuting, told the court that psychiatrists’ reports found Miss Stevenson to be suffering from diminished responsibility around the time of the murder. Defence QC Mark Stewart claimed that a doctor's report told of how Miss Stevenson seemed to have been re-living past events “but discharged her aggression towards a man with whom she had previously had a supportive relationship”. The court was informed that Mr. Brereton and Miss Stevenson met ten years ago and were in a two-year relationship. The pair had remained friends following their split.
The court heard how Miss Stevenson had a history of mental illness but psychiatrists claimed the violence to be out of character, concluding that Miss Stevenson's past abuse and mental difficulties had resulted in her “misperceiving threat where none was intended”. Miss Stevenson is due to be sentenced next month.
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