26 years for killer who cut up mum and dumped body in bins
A ‘DEPRAVED’ killer who dismembered a mother of three and hid her body parts in bins was jailed for life yesterday.
Steven Jackson, 40, will serve a minimum of 26 years.
Co-accused Michelle higgins was jailed for eight years for helping dispose of their victim’s body.
Earlier, Jackson was found guilty of battering former partner Kimberley MacKenzie with a hammer and stabbing her at a flat in Montrose, Angus, on October 27, 2015.
Miss MacKenzie, 37, sustained at least ten blows to the head and was stabbed 40 times.
The following day, Jackson chopped up her body in a bath and wrapped the parts in plastic bags. he and higgins took some of her remains through the streets before hiding them in bins.
Jackson later told police he had fed other body parts to pigs.
A murder charge against higgins, 29, a friend of the victim, was found not proven.
Passing sentence at the high Court in Livingston, judge Lady Rae told the pair: ‘The behaviour of both of you was despicable and callous.
‘The killing appears to have been a wholly motiveless and brutal murder of a defenceless woman.
‘What you both did to the body of the deceased shows a level of depravity thankfully not often seen in these courts.
‘You, Mr Jackson, boasted that you were sexually aroused when you were cutting up the body of the deceased.
‘Miss MacKenzie sustained around, or in excess of, ten blows
‘Despicable and callous behaviour’
to her head, inflicted with a hammer or similar instrument. You, Mr Jackson, then struck her with a knife or knives, inflicting approximately 40 sharp-force injuries to her body, which included injuries of a defensive nature.
‘Many, if not all, of those injuries were inflicted upon her when she was still alive.’
The judge said higgins had remained in the room throughout the attack and watched Jackson murdering Miss MacKenzie.
She told her: ‘You did nothing to assist the deceased or to summon help at any stage.’
Defence advocate Jonathan Crowe, for Jackson, said his client had never previously been convicted of any violent crime.
he told the court: ‘his position is that the only part he played in this horrendous incident was to assist in the dismembering and disposal of the deceased.’
Mark Stewart, QC, defending higgins, said she had been candid and open with social workers and answered their questions with ‘what appears to be some degree of insight into the nature of the offence and the dreadful consequences it had’.
The trial heard Jackson targeted Miss MacKenzie in a frenzied attack with two knives, a hammer and a large paint scraper.
As she sat in an armchair drinking tea and chatting to higgins, Jackson walked up to Miss MacKenzie and hit her on the right side of the head with a hammer. The force of the blow knocked her to the ground. As she lay helpless, Jackson stabbed her 40 times before hitting her again on the head with the hammer.
The final violent blow to Miss MacKenzie’s head was with the paint scraper.
her body was then cut into 12 pieces and parts were dumped in four bins in Montrose.
The pair were filmed on CCTV carrying the bags through the streets of the town.
During the trial, each accused blamed the other.
Jackson has 21 previous convictions, including theft, housebreaking, fireraising and misuse of drugs. higgins has convictions for shoplifting and breach of the peace.
Outside court, the victim’s mother, helen MacKenzie, reacted with fury, saying: ‘he’s a psycho. They’re both psychos. The sentences are ridiculous.’