Stabbed in the heart by jealous boyfriend
Guilty verdicts for son and mother
A jealous boyfriend has been convicted of killing a man after catching him alone with his partner and believing they had sex.
Robbie Smullen was found guilty of stabbing 22-year-old Barry Dixon in the heart in a Perth flat after an eightday trial.
Smullen (23) had claimed the fatal injury was inflicted when Barry pulled a knife on him and they both ”tripped and fell” during a struggle over the weapon.
But a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh rejected his defence of selfdefence and returned a majority verdict of culpable homicide on Thursday.
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).
Wearing a dark suit, Smullen showed no emotion as the verdict was delivered.
He had denied assaulting Barry in Perth’s Wallace Court, striking him on the body with a knife or similar instrument, and murdering him on June 4, 2019.
His mother Mary Smullen (46) had been on trial alongside him, accused of pretending to police that Barry was stabbed by her son’s “on/off” partner Shannon Beattie.
After her son gave evidence in his own defence on Tuesday, she pled guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Judge Lady Carmichael deferred sentence on both Robbie Smullen and his mother until April 16 for reports. Mary Smullen wept as she sat near her son in the dock.
The court heard Smullen had previous convictions, including for car theft.
The jury spent around six hours deliberating the murder allegation before returning the reduced charge of culpable homicide.
During the trial, Shannon Beattie told the court she witnessed Smullen stab Barry as the pair fought.
She described arguing with Smullen the previous evening after accusing him of fathering a baby with a pal’s girlfriend.
Shannon said she threw Smullen out of her flat and ended up at the nearby home of a Lesley Sweeney because she was looking for a friend to get a cigarette.
Shannon told how Barry was in the home and they later left together, later ending up together in the Wallace Court flat.
She and Barry kissed, the court heard, and they were listening to music, drinking and “having a laugh”.
Smullen arrived home, she said, and Barry did not follow her warning to “hide”.
Shannon said Smullen branded her a “f ***** g s**g” and a fight broke out between the men.
Shannon said she tried to get between them before Smullen pushed her into a wall.
She said: “I just remember seeing Robbie and Barry. Robbie stabbed him in the chest.”
The court heard Barry “laughed to begin with, I think because he didn’t know he’d been stabbed” then “he just froze” and fell onto a mattress.
She said she told Barry “you can stop pretending” as she thought he was “playing dead”.
She added: “I grabbed him by the shoulders and said, ‘Barry, wake up.’”
Witness Brian Henderson said he had been at his partner’s home a few doors away from Mary’s Smullen’s address.
The 48-year-old said Robbie Smullen came to their door, saying: “I think I’ve killed someone, I think I’ve killed someone”.
The witness said his partner went with Smullen to his mum’s home and he later followed. He described seeing Mary Smullen “battering” her son and saying, ‘What did you do that for?’”
People were in the kitchen, he said, and he went into the hall where he heard more talking. Brian added: “(Robbie) was going on about the boy he killed saying, ‘I’m glad I killed him, he’s a d**k’ or something to that effect.”
He described a group including Mary Smullen leaving in a car while he and his partner remained behind with Robbie Smullen.
The court heard the group went to the Wallace Court flat and found Barry lying injured then later returned.
In his police statement, Brian told cops: “When (Robbie) heard the news he had killed him, (Robbie) wasn’t upset. He was saying, ‘I killed him, I killed him,’ like in a bragging way. Like he was proud of himself. I thought it was sick.”
Brian told officers that Mary Smullen was “panicking” and “going on about Robbie’s ex”.
He said he heard discussions about saying “Robbie’s ex-girlfriend” had come round earlier and “said she’d knifed him”.
Brian added to police: “They were trying to cover Robbie’s a**e.
The trial heard how Mary Smullen told a 999 operator that Shannon Beattie was responsible for stabbing Barry after she went to the flat and found him lying badly injured on a mattress in the living room.
The jury was played a transcript of her 999 call made at 2.35am. Asked where Shannon was, Smullen told the operator: “I think it was her who done it.”
She added Shannon had been “running about screaming that she killed someone”.
Witness Carrie-Anne Cobban (33), who lived next to Mary Smullen in Perth, told how she accompanied Mary Smullen and two men to Wallace Court after Robbie Smullen turned up at his mum’s.
Carrie-Anne said: “There was a boy lying on a mattress in the living room. I know it was Barry Dixon now.
“He had a pair of shorts on, nothing else.”
She added: “I checked for a pulse. He had a pulse and was breathing.”
Carrie-Anne said she and the others left about “one minute” after Mary Smullen made the 999 call.
Barry was taken to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee but suffered a cardiac arrest in hospital while surgeons battled to repair the damage and he was pronounced dead at 5.53am on June 4 2019.
Barry Dixon’s family previously told the PA of their anguish at his tragic death.
Speaking on the first anniversary of his killing, cousin Jade Taylor had said: “Every day of the last year has been painful for us without Barry; we are alive but we are no longer living.
“We miss Barry so much and he is missing so much.
“Barry was so kind, funny, talented and someone who would never have walked past someone in need.
“It’s never going to be okay that he isn’t here and we will never get over it.”
I just remember seeing Robbie and Barry. Robbie stabbed him in the chest