Brutal Angus killer Steven Jackson’s bid to clear his name and win his freedom will be heard in September.
Jackson is appealing his conviction and life sentence for the murder of 37-year-old Montrose mum Kim MacKenzie.
A procedural hearing took place before a single judge at the High Court of Appeal in Edinburgh on Wednesday morning.
A date was then set for the full hearing which will take place before three senior judges on September 19.
A range of options will be available to the appeal judges, from rejecting the appeal on both grounds to ordering a retrial in the case.
Jackson, 41, battered Ms MacKenzie in a frenzied attack with two knives, a hammer and a large paint scraper at a flat in Montrose in October 2015.
As she lay dying from massive head injuries, Jackson and his girlfriend Michelle Higgins went out to buy heroin and were captured on CCTV walking hand-in-hand through Montrose High Street.
The following day Jackson chopped up Ms MacKenzie in a bath, and, with help from Higgins, dumped parts of the mum-of-three’s body in bins across the town.
CCTV captured the pair walking through the streets of the Angus town with parts of their victim in a green suitcase and a child’s rucksack.
Along with Jackson, Higgins was convicted of attempting to defeat the ends of justice over the efforts to dispose of the corpse.
Jackson was jailed for a minimum of 26 years while Higgins was sentenced to eight years behind bars for her role.
During the trial at the High Court in Glasgow, each of the accused blamed the other for murdering Ms MacKenzie.
Higgins claimed that she was so terrified of Jackson that she helped him dispose of Ms MacKenzie’s body after he had killed her.
Jackson and Higgins had got to know each other through drugs, with Jackson regularly supplying her with heroin.
Sentencing judge Lady Rae previously described their actions as “despicable and callous” and condemned Jackson for a complete lack of remorse over the murder.
He was on several bail orders at the time of the killing and boasted about what he had done.
