Killer who set former partner alight sent to maximum security hospital

● Businesswoman died after suffering 85 per cent burns to her body in car fire

A killer who watched on after setting his former partner on fire has been sent to Scotland’s maximum security psychiatric hospital.

Kevin Marks, 48, stood over businesswoman Ann Drummond as she rolled around the ground in a bid to put out the fire which he had started on 25 June 2019 in her car at a road near Bathgate in West Lothian.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard paramedics rushed to the scene and took her to hospital with 85 per cent burns to her body.

She died at Glasgow’ s Royal Infirmary Hospital after doctors concluded her injuries were so severe that she couldn’t survive.

In the hours before the attack, Ms Drummond ,47, who had four grown-up children, was so concerned by her partner’s poor mental health she met with him as he was released on bail in connection with other charges.

Police later arrested Marks, also of Bathgate, and charged him with murder.

He had been arrested earlier in the same week in connection with other alleged offences.

Officers were so concerned by Marks’s mental health that he was twice assessed by community forensic nurses.

However, they concluded that he was fit to be released and he later appeared at Livingston Sheriff Court and was granted bail.

Marks, a patient of the State Hospital at Car stairs, then attacked his former partner in her vehicle at an unclassified countryside road near to Bath gate. Prosecutor Alan Cameron told the court that eyewitnesses noticed a car on fire.

He added: “In the ambulance Ms Drummond spoke to paramedics.

“She said that she had been in the passenger seat and that Mr Marks had poured petrol on her and set her alight.”

The story emerged after Marks pleaded not guilt y to charges of murder, assault and threatening behaviour and the Crown accepted them.

On the legal document stating the charges facing Marks, the Crown claimed the murder was aggravated under section one of the 2016 Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm Act. This par t of the legislation covers abusive behaviour towards partners and former partners.

Mr Cameron told temporar y judge Simon Collins QC that Ms Drummond had been in a relationship with Marks for around two and a half years and they split a week before she died.

He said that people who had met Marks in the week before the attack thought his mental health was poor.

Judge Collins adjourned proceedings to another hearing next month.