Life Sentence For DVD Row Killer

A 55-year-old man who murdered his partner following a row about DVDs of her late husband was today jailed for at least 16 years.

Judge Johanna Johnston told Christopher Shone who stabbed 43-year-old mother-of-four Mary Craig through the heart at the Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, home they shared on May 26 that she was imposing a life sentence.

Judge Johnston said: "You were convicted of murdering Mary Craig. The jury rejected your defence of accident.

"There had been an argument and Miss Craig said she was fed up with your behaviour. Later that day you stabbed her through the heart.

"That brutal act robbed her of her life, robbed her children of their mother and tore apart the family.. Her family have all been devastated by your crime. For her children their lives will never be the same again."

As Shone was led away to begin his sentence members of Miss Craig's family shouted: "Murderer and rot in hell' at him.

Defence QC Brian McConnachie said: "Mr Shone was been suffered from post traumatic stress disorder since an assault on him some years ago. That day there was some kind of argument about the DVD. It is illogical and irrational, but it does seems this was on his mind.

"It resulted in an argument which led to the death of Mary Craig."

Shone stabbed Mary Craig, following an argument about old home videos, which showed her late husband. Shone denied the murder on 26 May, and claimed the 43-year-old had died while trying to stop him self-harming.

The court heard how the couple had been together for eight years in a relationship that was described as "up and down". 'In a low' Shone had gone with Ms Craig to her sister's home on the morning of 26 May.

It was while there an old home video was put on which showed Ms Craig with her ex-husband.

Shone claimed he soon "went into a low" as it had been difficult "seeing them together".

The couple later argued when Ms Craig returned home from her karate class.

She questioned why he was upset as her former husband had since died.

A neighbour Amanda Brown said Miss Craig was "usually cheery and bubbly", but this time appeared to be "quiet and looked fed up" and added: "I thought she was going to leave him...separate."

Instead she was killed later that night when Shone plunged a kitchen knife into her chest. He then put the murder weapon back into a knife block and sought no assistance for his dying partner.

It was Miss Craig's 13-year-old son who dialled 999. The jury was played the emergency call where the distressed teenager repeatedly asks for help for his mother.

Shone was detained at his house and later apparently broke down when police told him Miss Craig had died.

He wailed in front of officers: "I cannot believe it. It was just an argument...she is not dead, she is not dead."

Im evidence, Shone claimed the death was a tragic accident after she tried to stop him self harming.

He said he had gone into the kitchen in the midst of a row and reached for a knife to cut himself.

Shone said Miss Craig got hold of his arm, but he tried to "wrestle" the blade away from her.

Asked what happened, Shone wept: "Her arm slipped off mine. My arm came down...it went into her. "I just thought that it was a small cut."

Shone insisted he "felt terrible" at what happened and that he would never deliberately stab someone.

But prosecutor Steven Borthwick described Shone's claims as a "pack of lies" and said that he had stabbed Miss Craig "right to the hilt" of the knife.