SpindriftA man murdered his partner of 35 years after he became convinced she has having an affair with one of his sons.
Colin Kennedy, 63, was found guilty of the “malevolent butchery” of Catherine Stewart at their home in Airdrie, Lanarkshire on July 4, 2021.
One of the couple’s daughters came downstairs to find him carrying out the savage attack on the cancer survivor that Sunday morning.
Kennedy accused the 54 year-old of cheating on him with a son from a previous relationship.
He had warned he was going to “kill” his partner before the attack. Kennedy, of Kirkliston, Edinburgh, had claimed he was mentally ill at the time.
But, he was found guilty of a murder that prosecutors said was “driven by anger and rage”.
First offender Kennedy was jailed for life at the High Court in Glasgow and ordered to serve a minimum 25 years behind bars.
Kennedy had a total of seven children including two daughters and a son with Catherine.
Jurors heard how the couple’s relationship had deteriorated in the run-up to the killing.
He latterly had the “unshakeable” view his partner was seeing her 45-year-old step-son – who lived in Liverpool.
This included him making a “clandestine recording” of a phone call between the pair.
This was played during the trial. At one stage, Catherine stated: “He is accusing me of something I have not done.”
The grandmother instead claimed it was Kennedy who was previously guilty of infidelity.
Kennedy later met his son and told him: “I am going to kill your mum.”
On the morning of the attack, the couple’s youngest daughter was upstairs when she heard Catherine shouting, “Get off me”.
The 17-year-old told police: “I went into the kitchen and saw my mum lying on the floor in a pool of blood.
“I saw my dad stab my mum with a knife. I shouted at him to stop and tried to pull him off.”
She recalled being in “full on panic mode” adding: “I was shaking. I was shocked – I could not even cry.”
The teenager grabbed at Kennedy as he continued the attack.
She also told police: “The only thing I thought of was, ‘I am going to lose my mum’ and it is all my dad’s fault.”
The detectives praised the girl for bravely trying to prevent what happened.
Kennedy was soon arrested – he confessed that he had stabbed Catherine and “just kept hitting her”.
At the trial, he did not deny the killing, but had lodged a special defence of diminished responsibility.
Family members had concerns about him before Catherine’s death – mainly about his claims regarding the affair.
But, in his closing speech, prosecutor John McElroy KC said Kennedy was guilty of a “pre-meditated” killing.
He told jurors: “The Crown position is that this was murder, plain and simple.
“It was driven by anger and rage. His life, as he knew it, was coming to an end.
“He was suffering from stress, his partner wanted him out. The relationship had effectively come to an end.
“He was a jealous, angry and unhappy man.”
Catherine was said to have made a comment to him that morning and Mr McElroy said Kennedy “lost his temper and stabbed her to death”.
He initially knifed her in the back and then repeatedly in the chest.
Sentencing, Lord Arthurson told Kennedy: “This was not just a sustained episode of frenzied, instrumental violence.
“This was a cowardly attack of malevolent and wholly murderous butchery perpetrated on your partner.”
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