Murder accused ‘abused by lover’

Kimberley MacKenzie, 37, is said to have been killed at a flat on Montrose’s Market Street on October 27 2015.

Steven Jackson, 40, and Michelle Higgins, 29, are accused of murder by striking Miss MacKenzie with a hammer, machete and knife.

During a trial at the High Court in Glasgow, a jury heard that, when she was detained for murder in Aberdeen on November 6 2015, Higgins told police that she had suffered abuse from Jackson during their three-week relationship.

Higgins also told police Jackson would have claimed she was also involved in the murder as “payback” for leaving him.

Detective Constable Kim Duncan, 31, told the court: “Higgins said that Steven Jackson put her name in it as payback.”

DC Duncan asked what she thought Higgins meant by payback. She replied: “I believe it was for leaving him.”

Mark Stewart QC, defending for Higgins, asked DC Duncan if his client had told her she had suffered “abuse” from Jackson and DC Duncan replied: “She did.”

DC Duncan also said Higgins had told her that Jackson was “a psycho” and she had been “scared” to tell police about Miss MacKenzie’s murder.

The court also heard that, when being charged with the murder of Miss MacKenzie in Dundee’s Bell Street headquarters in the early hours of November 6, Higgins replied: “I’m not guilty”. Meanwhile, the jury was told by another officer, Detective Constable Nicola Annan, 45, that Higgins had “fingertip bruising” on various parts of her body and “SJ” “scratched into her skin”. Jackson and Higgins are accused of murdering Miss MacKenzie. Prosecutors claim the 37-year-old was struck with a hammer, machete and knife or similar items. It’s alleged Miss MacKenzie’s body was dismembered using a saw, knives and a screwdriver or similar instruments. It is further alleged Miss MacKenzie’s head and other body parts were put inside a rucksack and case and concealed in a shower cubicle. Jackson, of Market Street, also faces two separate drugs charges and a weapon possession charge, while Higgins is accused of possession of a knife. The pair deny all the charges and the trial continues.

A WOMAN accused of murdering a Tayside motherof-three was abused by her former partner and had his initials scratched into her skin, a court heard.

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