Thug guilty of killing Barry in jealous rage
BY ALAN McEWEN alan.mcewen@reachplc.com
A JEALOUS boyfriend was convicted of killing a man after catching him alone with his partner.
Robbie Smullen was found guilty yesterday of stabbing 22-year-old Barry Dixon in the heart in a Perth flat.
Smullen, 23, claimed the fatal injury was inflicted when Barry pulled a knife on him and they both ”tripped and fell”.
But a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh rejected his defence of self-defence and returned a majority verdict of culpable homicide.
Barry was wearing just boxer shorts when he was knifed in the chest after going back to the flat with Smullen’s “on-off” partner Shannon Beattie, 25.
Smullen had denied assaulting Barry in Perth’s Wallace Court, with a knife or similar instrument, and murdering him in June 2019.
His mum Mary Smullen, 46, had been on trial alongside him, accused of pretending to police that Barry was stabbed by Shannon.
She pled guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice on Tuesday.
Judge Lady Carmichael deferred sentence on Robbie Smullen and his mother until April 16.
During the trial, Shannon told the court she witnessed Smullen stab Barry.
She described meeting Barry in another woman’s home on the evening of June 3, 2019, and they ended up together in her flat.
She and Barry kissed and were listening to music, drinking and “having a laugh”.
Smullen arrived home, she said, and branded her a “f ***** g s**g” with a fight breaking out between him and Barry.
Shannon said she tried to get between them before Smullen pushed her into a wall.
She said: “Robbie stabbed him in the chest.”
Barry was taken to Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, but later died.