Just 5½ years in jail for stabbing woman to death
A MOTHER was yesterday jailed for five-and-a-half years after stabbing another woman to death in a street attack.
Siobhan Russell armed herself with a knife before attacking Marie Low in a fatal confrontation.
The victim, who was due to be a grandmother, died from a single stab wound in the assault in Dundee.
Russell was originally charged with murdering the 36-year-old but was convicted of the reduced charge of culpable homicide.
A jury at the High Court in Edinburgh found her guilty of killing Miss Low after struggling with her, pulling her hair and striking her with the knife.
Judge Lord Burns told Russell, 31, the jury rejected a plea that she acted in self-defence and found she had not been provoked into assaulting Miss Low. He said that whatever the reason for Miss Low and her daughter visiting Russell’s house on September 4, 2016, ‘there was no justification for you coming out to confront her, far less armed with a knife’.
Lord Burns described it as an ‘unprovoked attack’ and said he accepted the assault was out of character for Russell and that he could take account of her history of depression and drug dependency.
He also accepted that she had shown remorse following the offence and had not sought out her victim on that particular occasion.
Lord Burns added: ‘Nevertheless, the taking of a life by the use of a weapon such as a knife is a very serious matter.’
Defence solicitor advocate Iain Paterson argued that the verdict returned by the jury showed that Russell did not intend to kill.
He said his client was aware she would be jailed and told the court she had no history of offending and was a mother of two whose absence would have an impact on her children.
Mr Paterson said Russell had suffered problems with drugs and with her mental health, adding: ‘There was clearly an
‘Very serious matter’
ongoing problem that occurred between the deceased and a number of residents locally.’
He added that it was not a case of Russell going to find Miss Low but rather the other way round.
Russell accepted that she had taken a knife from her home into the street, he said.
Mr Paterson said it was a tragedy that the mother and soon-to-be grandmother died following the confrontation.
But he added: ‘However, to an extent this incident would not have occurred but for the fact Marie Low went to confront Siobhan Russell at her home.’
The solicitor advocate said that a background report on Russell showed she had ‘appropriate remorse for her conduct’.