Sentence of pensioner guilty of murder delayed by report

A judge has adjourned sentence on a pensioner convicted of murdering a woman after hearing that social workers have not completed a report into his character.

Michael Taylor, 71, was convicted last month at the High Court in Edinburgh of killing Elizabeth Mackay, 60, at her home in Kintail Court, Inverness, last year.

The court heard how Taylor subjected defenceless Elizabeth to a ‘painful and terrifying' attack in which he repeatedly punched her on the head.

He then repeatedly struck her on the head with what prosecutors say was either a kitchen pot or pan before removing his victim's clothing. Taylor then handled and bit Elizabeth's breast before fleeing the scene.

Police managed to find sufficient DNA and fingerprint evidence to tie Taylor to the crime and he was arrested shortly afterwards.

Taylor, a prisoner of HMP Inverness, was due to be sentenced yesterday.

However, judge Michael O'Grady QC adjourned sentence after being told a report which he commissioned at proceedings last month was mot yet available. Taylor will now be sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh on July 7.

The address of the crime was the same single-storey council house where Brian Grant murdered hairdresser Ilene O’Connor a decade ago and buried her body in the garden.

The semi-detached, single-storey house has been lying empty since Elizabeth Mackay’s body was found in a pool of blood in the kitchen in March last year.

The local authority have not, so far, ruled out re-letting the home at Kintail Court in the Hilton area of Inverness, despite it having been the scene of two horrific, unrelated crimes.

Ms Mackay went to Inverness High School with murdered London police officer Gordon Semple.

“Taylor subjected Elizabeth to a ‘painful and terrifying' attack”

ADJOURNED: Michael Taylor was to be sentenced for the Inverness murder