Murder accused tells jury he was 'apocalyptically angry' when he killed woman
Andrew Innes is standing trial at the High Court in Edinburgh
A man has told how he was "apocalyptically angry" as he used a hammer to kill a woman he described as looking like a hybrid between his wife and a woman he met at a rope bondage club.
Andrew Innes is on trial at the High Court in Edinburgh accused of murdering Bennylyn Burke, 25, and Jellica Burke, two, at a house in Troon Avenue, Dundee, between February 20 and March 5, 2021.
The 52-year-old, who denies all charges but has admitted killing the pair and lodged a special defence of diminished responsibility, told the jury of the moment he used a hammer to kill Ms Burke on February 21.
He said that from the neck down, Ms Burke reminded him of his wife. From the head up, she looked like another woman he started an affair with after meeting her in a Japanese rope bondage club, he said.
He told the jury: "The person standing in front of me didn't just look like both of these people but actually, somehow, was both of these people in some kind of hybrid."
He said that as Ms Burke stood in his kitchen preparing food: "I thought of all the nasty things my wife had done to me and I got angry, the way she treated me.
"I was furious, I started to think some crazy things."
Innes said he hit Ms Burke on the back of the head and then went to get his samurai sword with which she was later stabbed.
Two to three days later, Innes said, Jellica was killed. "It seemed logical to me to put her with her mum," Innes told the court. "That's what she asked for so I put her with her mum."
Cross-examination
Innes, who told the court he is hypersexual, was asked in cross-examination by advocate depute Alex Prentice KC about where he put the bodies.
He replied: "I dug them a respectable grave and gave them a Christian burial and then replaced the floor. That's all I did."
He said he had planned to bury them at sea, as he is an environmentalist, but instead put them under his kitchen floor because he was refurbishing the room.
Their bodies were discovered by police under the floor after a week of excavation works.
The court has been told Innes suffers from Crohn's disease, and just before the killing he was admitted to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee and was put on a course of medication which included steroids.
When asked why he killed, he said: "Because I was insane, as a result of the steroids."
He told Mr Prentice that if he wanted to hide the bodies, he would have gone to much greater lengths.
Meanwhile, the court was told on Thursday that charges of abducting and assaulting a girl in the house at the time of the incident have been dropped, as has part of another charge which said he wanted to flee with a girl.
Innes denies murdering Ms Burke and Jellica, sexually assaulting Jellica, and raping another child.
He has also denied defeating the ends of justice.
The trial, before Lord Beckett, continues.
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