A woman who was cleared of an unsolved Perthshire murder faces having a baby behind bars after she admitted breaking her community payback order.
Angela Newlands, who is due to give birth around the turn of the year, has been warned she could be jailed when she is sentenced next month.
Heavily pregnant Newlands – who was cleared of killing her lover’s sister Annalise Johnstone – admitted failing to do her previously imposed court order.
She appeared in the dock at Perth Sheriff Court and Sheriff James Macdonald told her that she could be sent to prison two days before the baby is due.
Solicitor John McLaughlin, defending, said: “The situation is she is now very heavily pregnant. She has had two recent scans.
“One gave her due date as 18 December. The second scan suggested 8 January, but in fact she is going for another scan at Perth Royal Infirmary next Friday.”
Mr McLaughlin said Newlands had fallen pregnant while she was on a curfew imposed as part of the original sentence which she has already breached once before.
He said the relationship had been marked by violence and she had moved around the country several times to get away from her partner.
Sheriff Macdonald said: “The best thing to do here is to order a full set of new reports. All sentencing options will be open on that occasion.”
Newlands, 30, admitted missing three meetings with her supervising social worker on September 3 and 10 and October 1.
Sentence was deferred until December 16.
She had previously been placed on an eight-month curfew – from 7pm to 7am daily – and under supervision for a year when she first admitted failing to carry out a social work order.
She was also banned from driving for 11 months and trying to pin the blame on her own sister when she was caught driving the wrong way on a one-way street in Perth while she was already banned.
Newlands pretended to be her sister Danielle and told officers they were often mistaken for each other because they looked very similar.
However, the officer recognised Newlands and was aware that she and her boyfriend Jordan Johnstone had been charged with the murder of 22-year-old Annalise.
Annalise’s body was found dumped at the Maggie Wall’s Witch Monument in Dunning, in May 2018.
Her throat had been cut and she sustained unsurvivable injuries.
Newlands was cleared of the murder in May last year after a judge at the High Court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to convict her of the crime.
Johnstone – who admitted carrying his dead sister’s body for two miles and dumping her by a roadside – was also cleared of murder after the jury returned a not proven verdict.
When he gave evidence after his partner was cleared at the murder trial, Johnstone blamed her for the killing and told the jury she had blackmailed him into covering it up.
Late last year, Police Scotland confirmed a new search had been carried out near the monument as part of a continuing investigation into the killing.
Johnstone, 25, told the High Court he cradled his younger sister in his arms and had tried to staunch the flow of blood from a wound. He said Newlands cut his sister’s throat with a Stanley knife after going to look at the monument which marks the spot where a woman is said to have been burnt as a witch in 1657.
He told the court he remained in the car with Ms Newlands’ sleeping children.
He said he later carried his sister’s body for around 40 minutes before dumping it behind a wall about two miles away because he feared Miss Newlands’ father was going to “chop my wee sister up and throw her away”.
The prosecution and defence had confirmed that Mr Johnstone’s car was near the Maggie’s Wall Memorial at the time Miss Johnstone was attacked.
