Man cleared of killing his sister with Stanley knife
Annalise Johnstone’s brother was yesterday cleared of killing his 22-year- old sister by repeatedly slashing her throat from ear to ear with a Stanley knife.
A jury at the High Court in Livingston found a murder charge against Jordan Johnstone, 25, not proven.
He had denied cutting his sibling’s throat at the Maggie Wall’s witch’s memorial near Dunning, Perth shire, on 10 May last year.
The unemployed builder – who like Annalise is a member of Scotland’s traveller community – had denied committing the crime.
The jury heard that Annalise’s horrific injuries would have caused her death within minutes as a result of massive blood loss. A pathologist said the deep gashes in her neck which severed the main arteries and blood vessels to the brain and caused her to choke on her own blood were “unsurvivable”.
During a week-long trial at the High Court in Livingston, the jury was shown CCTVfootage from a private house showing car headlights and what appeared to be light from a torch or a mobile phone at the memorial between midnight and 2 am on the morning Annalise disappeared.
Johnstone admitted he had been driving a car belonging to his ex girlfriend and former co-accused Angela Newlands, 28, when he stopped at the monument to let Annalise out to take photographs. He also admitted carrying his dead sister in his arms “like a child” for two miles before dumping her body behind a stone wall on the B8062 road.
However, he blamed Newlands for the murder, claiming she had threatened to have him charged with rap - ing her and sexually abusing her daughter if he did not cover up her alleged crime.
Newlands, who had denied murder and attempting to defeat the ends of justice, was acquitted of murder after judge Lady Scott ruled there was insufficient evidence to convict her. The Crown then withdrew all other charges against her.
Giving evidence in his own defence Johnstone confessed that he had changed his appearance, burned bloodstained clothes and buried the weapon which could have linked him to the death.
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