Mum of four jailed for killing husband.

Row led to wife inflicting blow which severed leg artery and vein

A mother-of-four was jailed for six years yesterday after stabbing her husband to death before telling a police worker: “The kids will never forgive me for killing their father.”

Louisa Anderson inflicted a single knife wound to the calf of her husband Douglas’s right leg which resulted in heavy blood loss after they were heard arguing at their home following a night out.

She later revealed: “I didn’t mean to kill him. It was in the leg. He wasn’t meant to die.”

Anderson, 36, later wrote to a relative from prison and said in the letter: “I can’t ask for anyone’s forgiveness as I will never be able to forgive myself and believe me when I say that no one can hate me as much as I hate myself.”

“If I could trade places with Dougie I would in a heartbeat but I can’t and I will always have to live with that,” she wrote.

A judge told Anderson: “This was not an offence committed against a background of a violent marriage for you and your husband appear to have been happily married and indeed had renewed your marriage vows.”

Lord Uist told her at the High Court in Edinburgh: “You will now have to live with the fact that you unjustifiably took his life.

“I accept that you have been profoundly affected by what you did and have shown considerable remorse.”

But he added: “You must understand that the crime which you committed involved the taking of another person’s life by the use of a lethal weapon, even though you had no intention to kill him.”

Lord Uist pointed out that it was not the first time that Anderson, who has previous convictions for assault, had used a knife to inflict injury on another.

The judge said he had been informed through a background report that Anderson had anger management issues and her actions during the attack on her husband were “impulsive”.

He pointed out that Anderson was very drunk and the fatal assault occurred following an argument about her husband’s sister.

Lord Uist told her: “You must have acquired the knife, which was a substantial one, before using it on him in the upstairs bedroom.”

The court earlier heard that in recorded phone calls from prison Anderson had made further admissions over the crime and said: “I can’t even remember doing it, I was ... steaming.”

She was originally charged with murdering her husband on February 25 this year at the home they shared in Dunnock Park, Perth, but the Crown earlier accepted her guilty plea to the reduced charge of culpable homicide by striking him on the leg with a knife and killing him.

Advocate depute Jane Farquharson said taxi driver Mr Anderson, 39, was described by friends as “a popular family man”.

The prosecutor said: “There is no record of any physical violence and police have never been involved in the relationship. There is no suggestion of domestic abuse on either side.”

Anderson and her husband had both gone out drinking in Perth separately with friends on the evening before the fatal attack and had both consumed significant amounts of drink.

Mr Anderson had got into a confrontation with his sister Bernadette in a pub in the city and called his wife to tell her what had happened. He later met his sister again in another bar and tried to apologise but she refused to accept it, the court heard.

His wife then got into a further confrontation with his sister and a friend outside the pub that was described as a “cat fight”, said Miss Farquharson.

The couple were then seen on CCTV walking through streets in Perth before he returned home alone and appeared very drunk to his mother-in-law.

Anderson remained in town drinking with friends and footage taken after midnight at a bar showed her appearing unsteady on her feet. She got a taxi home just after 1am.

They were later heard in an argument about Mr Anderson’s sister and Anderson’s mother, who had returned to her own nearby home, was alerted to return to their house.

She went back to the house and saw a lot of blood and found her daughter on the phone making a 999 call kneeling over Mr Anderson.

Miss Farquharson said: “A pool of the deceased’s blood was found in the bedroom he shared with the accused, indicating where the stabbing had taken place and his blood was distributed on the banisters from the top of the stairs going down.”

The stab wound on his leg was found to have severed both an artery and a vein.

Tony Lenehan, counsel who appeared for Anderson, said that every hour of time away from her children was “a special sort of punishment” for her.

“She knows the tragedy that it is, as she knows the value of Douglas as a father and a husband. She knows the impact this will have on their children,” he said.

I accept that you have been profoundly affected by what you did and have shown considerable remorse. JUDGE LORD UIST

Louisa Anderson claims she did not mean to kill her husband Douglas and that she will never forgive herself.