Confession not immediately believed

Hours after apparently admitting to dismembering the body of Miss MacKenzie, Steven Jackson was still not being treated seriously as a suspect by police officers.

The High Court in Glasgow heard from officers who said he had confessed his former partner had died in his flat and been cut up by him in his bath, with her body parts disposed of in bins around the town.

Yet PC Michael Woodburn told jurors he was not immediately detained because there was not yet any physical evidence.

He was still concerned the claims were fantasy, a view Inspector Lorente said he had initially shared.

Jackson remained at Montrose Police Station for some time, on a “voluntary” basis before matters escalated and he was finally detained.

Mark Stewart QC, representing Higgins, suggested Jackson’s behaviour had been designed to set up a defence of diminished responsibility.

He questioned how he could be babbling one moment and offering a lucid and detailed description of what had taken place – including Higgins striking Miss MacKenzie several times on the head with a hammer – the next.

PC Michael Woodburn.