Lawyers acting for a man accused of murdering a woman in a west Fife village last year have lodged a special defence of diminished responsibility.
Aaron Donald, 28, has made another appearance at the High Court in Glasgow accused of killing Claire Turnbull, 36, at a flat in Rintoul Avenue, Blairhall, on Friday, October 5 2018.
Donald, who is from Blairhall but is currently in custody, previously spent a month being assessed at the State Hospital in Carstairs to determine his fitness to stand trial, and his defence solicitor advocate Bert Kerrigan QC formally tabled his special defence before Judge Lady Johnston at a hearing on Wednesday morning.
In law, the statutory test for diminished responsibility is that the behaviour for which a person would otherwise be convicted of murder was, at the time of the conduct, “substantially impaired by reason of abnormality of mind”.
Donald was charged with murdering Ms Turnbull and attempting to defeat the ends of justice in relation to her death.
His co-accused Laura McMurdo, 29, also from Blairhall, has previously pled not guilty to the charges and is currently out on bail.
She appeared alongside Donald in the dock during Wednesday morning’s brief proceedings.
Mr Kerrigan said his client had been suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the offence and said it was appropriate to lodge the special defence reflecting those circumstances at this point.
The Crown had no opposition to Mr Kerrigan’s motion and called for trial dates to be fixed.
McMurdo’s defence solicitor John Scullion reaffirmed his client’s not guilty pleas and also noted no opposition to Mr Kerrigan’s motion.
Judge Lady Johnston confirmed that Donald and McMurdo’s trial had been pencilled in to start on October 14 at the High Court in Livingston.
Relatives of Ms Turnbull were in court for the latest hearing.
Police were called to a first floor flat in Blairhall’s Rintoul Avenue on the evening of October 5 and Ms Turnbull was pronounced dead at the scene.
Originally from Methil, friends described her as a “lost soul” who had lost a baby daughter to cot death two years ago.
