Woman killed lover after taxi row

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A woman has admitted beating her 65-year-old lover to death after a row over a taxi.

Margaret Kennedy, 41, admitted killing John Simpson in the home they shared in Haldane Place, East Kilbride, in April.

The High Court in Glasgow heard that Kennedy launched a brutal attack on Mr Simpson hours after he refused to call a taxi to take her to the chemists.

She was originally charged with murder but the Crown accepted her guilty plea to culpable homicide.

Rib fractures

Kennedy, who has previous convictions for violence, committed the offence while she was on bail from Hamilton Sheriff Court and Greenock Sheriff Court.

Vinit Khurana, prosecuting, said that a post-mortem examination revealed that Mr Simpson had 120 injuries on his body.

The main injuries were multiple rib fractures and a ruptured spleen.

Pathologists estimated that Mr Simpson would have died about 15 to 30 minutes after his spleen ruptured.

Background reports

The cause of death was blunt force trauma but a potential contributory factor was the fact he had been drinking heavily.

The court was told Mr Simpson went to bed and said he did not want an ambulance called.

Kennedy phoned an ambulance two hours later when she checked on him and found he was not breathing.

Judge Lord Brailsford deferred sentence on Kennedy, who is in custody at Cornton Vale prison, until next month for background reports.

Defence counsel Derek Ogg will give his plea in mitigation then.