Woman in court over Riggi attack
Razor assault leaves killer mum scarred for life
A WOMAN has appeared in court charged with launching a razor attack on killer mum Theresa Riggi.
Angela Hamilton, 39, is accused of assaulting Riggi – who stabbed her three young children to death – to her severe injury and permanent disfigurement.
Stirling Sheriff Court was told that Hamilton g rabbed Riggi, 47, by the hair and repeatedly slashed her face and head with a razor blade or similar implement.
The attack took place in Ross House, the psychiatric wing of Cornton Vale Prison, near Stirling, on November 19 last year.
California-born Riggi – who is serving 16 years for the culpable homicide of her children – is said to have been left permanently scarred.
Hamilton, of Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire, made no plea or declaration and the case was continued for further examination.
Defence agent Matthew Berlow’s application for bail was granted and Hamilton was released to Leverndale Hospital on Glasgow’s Crookston Road.
Riggi stabbed her twin sons Austin and Luke, eight, and daughter Cecilia, five, in their flat in Edinburgh in August 2010.
She was found badly injured after plunging from a second-floor balcony in an apparent suicide attempt after a gas explosion.
Riggi had moved to the capital with her children from Skene, Aberdeenshire, following the break-up of her marriage to the children’s father Pasquale Riggi. The High Court in Edinburgh heard Riggi was involved in a custody battle with her estranged husband.
Riggi was initially charged with murder but later admitted culpable homicide on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Lord Bracadale described the killings as “truly disturbing” and “grotesque”.
Another Cornton Vale inmate, a 22-year-old woman, was charged with assaulting Riggi last October by allegedly throwing her down a flight of stairs, but the case was dropped.