A young woman was yesterday found guilty of killing her boyfriend by stabbing him in the chest during a jealous row about him contacting an ex-girlfriend.
Shaniece Dobson killed Sean Martin with a single stab wound after bickering with him at her home.
Advocate depute Shanti Maguire, prosecuting, described the killing as ‘cruel and callous’.
The jury at the High Court in Livingston heard that Dobson, of Motherwell, Lanarkshire, killed Mr Martin in front of his horrified young brother and sister after arguing with him in the living room of her high-rise flat in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire.
Ann Martin, 17, and her 15-year-old brother Paul said they saw Dobson attack 21-year-old Mr Martin in a jealous rage after she caught him on his mobile phone to an ex-girlfriend.
Dobson, 21, went to the kitchen, grabbed a large knife and returned to plunge it into Mr Martin’s chest, they said.
The seven-and-a-half inch blade pierced both lungs and sliced open his windpipe and his main artery, the aorta. Mr Martin collapsed and died within minutes from massive blood loss from internal injuries.
It emerged in evidence that Mr Martin, of Coatbridge, had only been arranging for his former girlfriend to take his dog.
Barefoot and covered in her boyfriend’s blood, Dobson fled to a friend’s flat in a tower block, where she was later detained by police.
Dobson was accused of murder but was found guilty of the lesser crime of culpable homicide.
Fury: Dobson, pictured left outside court, grabbed a knife from the kitchen and plunged it into Mr Martin’s chest
The jury took more than five hours to return a majority verdict of guilty to culpable homicide.
Dobson was remanded in custody for the preparation of social work and psychiatric reports and will be sentenced later.
Distress: She fled to a friend's home, barefoot and covered in blood
The trial was held twice after it was abandoned last week by the Crown in ‘bizarre’ circumstances.
A member of the public, who had reported at Livingston police station for jury service, was mistakenly allowed to take a real juror’s place on the second day of proceedings.
Senior judge Lord Boyd apologised to the families of both the accused and the victim for being forced to halt the first trial and appoint a new jury.
He said: ‘I appreciate that the abandonment of the trial will have added to your anxieties as to the outcome.
‘To the family of Sean Martin particularly, it will have been a particularly difficult time for you.
‘Not only have you lost a son and a brother but the abandonment of last week’s proceedings meant that two young people – Ann and Paul Martin – had to give evidence twice, reliving what, for them, must have been a horrific experience.’
Lord Boyd added: ‘The circumstances which led to the desertion were bizarre and unique. I have to say nobody has come across them before.
‘The circumstances which arose last week should not have happened and I extend to you the apologies of the court for that.’
