Victim’s sister handed fine

THE sister of a man who was stabbed to death in Perth threatened to burn the home of his killer’s family while waiting for the murder trial to take place.

Levi Dixon, whose brother Barry Dixon was killed by Robbie Smullen in a knife attack, told medical staff she planned to torch a house.

Perth Sheriff Court was told Dixon was suffering from “stress and anxiety” because she lived close to the family of the man accused of murdering her brother.

Mr Dixon’s family remain furious Smullen was later convicted of culpable homicide instead of murder and insist evidence has yet to be uncovered.

Fiscal depute David Currie told the court Levi Dixon became “irate” while on a call to a staff member at Perth Royal Infirmary and mentioned burning down the house.

He said: “She stated she was unable to stay in the house she was living in as the family of the man who allegedly murdered her brother lived across the road.

“That is the issue that made her irate. She stated she was going to burn down the house.”

When officers tracked down Dixon, she said: “This is all down to the police. On May 19 I gave them a video, fighting outside the house with a knife, and 18 days later my brother was murdered.”

Solicitor Lisa Campbell, defending, said: “There are a lot of difficult circumstances which led up to this offence. The loss of her brother has had a significant impact on her, understandably.

“Stress and anxiety contributed to the offence.”

Dixon, 30, of Strathtay Road, Perth, admitted making calls to staff based at Perth Royal Infirmary and Blairgowrie Cottage Hospital on December 12 2019.

She admitted shouting and swearing and uttering threats of violence during calls which were of a grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character.

Sheriff Neil Bowie said “in all the circumstances I am prepared to deal with this by way of a financial penalty” and he fined Dixon £450.

Robbie Smullen, 23, is currently awaiting sentence after being found guilty of the culpable homicide of Barry Dixon, 22, in Wallace Court, Perth, on June 4 2019.

Smullen, who denied murder and claimed he acted in self-defence, fatally stabbed Mr Dixon in the heart after finding him at his former girlfriend’s flat.

A jury at the High Court in Edinburgh found him guilty of the lesser charge of culpable homicide. His mother, Mary Smullen, 46, previously admitted a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice on the day of the attack.

She pretended to police officers the crime had been committed by Smullen’s former girlfriend Shannon Beattie, knowing that her son had stabbed Mr Dixon.

A judge deferred sentence on the two for the preparation of background reports. Mary Smullen was allowed bail while her son was held in custody.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that before the attack, Robbie Smullen had argued with Ms Beattie, the mother of his child, as she suspected he was the father of another woman’s baby.

Mr Dixon was taken to Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital but died during efforts to treat the injury.

Levi Dixon had been suffering from ‘stress and anxiety’.

Brother Barry Dixon was killed.