Troon Avenue killer Andrew Innes has been found guilty of murdering Bennylyn Burke and her two-year-old girl Jellica.
The depraved 52-year-old software engineer buried the mother and daughter under the kitchen floor of his Dundee home property in a horrifying crime that sent shockwaves across the country.
It took police several days to recover their bodies from underneath layers of concrete and rubble.
The monster also repeatedly molested and raped another child who police rescued from his lair.
Innes was further found guilty of inducing Jellica to perform a sex act on him.
He was also convicted of attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
Jurors delivered their verdict on Monday after a week-long sitting at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Innes was handed the mandatory life sentence, with an order he must serve at least 36 years.
The trial featured pre-recorded evidence from Innes’ young rape victim, which judge Lord Beckett described as “the most harrowing thing I have seen in my career.”
The judge had directed the jury to convict Innes of murder, pointing out his defence of diminished responsibility could not be supported.
Killer’s account of double murder
However, in his chilling account given on the witness stand, he said he could not be held responsible for his actions at the time.
Describing himself as hypersexual and “not wired up the same way as other people”, Innes said he smashed Mrs Burke over the head with a lump hammer he bought from B&Q earlier that day.
He stabbed her with a samurai sword from his home office.
He then beat her to death as she lay on his living room floor.
Innes told jurors he attacked Mrs Burke – who he met online and drove from Bristol to Dundee a few days earlier – because he believed she had transformed into a hybrid of his estranged wife and a woman he met at a rope bondage club in Japan.
He said he considered burying her body at sea “because I’m a bit of an environmentalist,” but then coldly told jurors: “I needed to refurbish my kitchen anyway.”
Two or three days later, he asphyxiated little Jellica during a game of hide and seek.
He told jurors: “Her main topic of conversation was to be with her mum.
“It seemed logical to me to put her with her mum, because that’s what she asked for.”
He denied murder and blamed taking an “overdose” of steroid medication.
Innes repeatedly said the double slayings were not premeditated, despite suspect internet searches for “chloroform” and “underfloor storage” days before he drove to meet Mrs Burke on February 19 2021.
Young survivor’s evidence
The court heard pre-recorded evidence from the primary school-age child Innes repeatedly molested at his home.
She described how she saw him kill Mrs Burke with a hammer and said Jellica went missing during a game in the house.
The Aberdeen University graduate tried to convince jurors the girl was lying to get him into trouble.
He suggested she might have died too if the police had not intervened when they did.
At one point, he tried to argue the child had tried to frame him by putting her saliva DNA on a kilt sock, with which she claimed he had gagged her.
He told jurors there was a BDSM gag in his living room and “if I wanted to gag the child I would have used that.”
Innes paid the girl to do “jobs” in his home.
She described how he sexually assaulted her using handcuffs and oil.
When asked how often this happened, she said: “Lots of times.”
However, the jury rejected his evidence.
How the trial unfolded:
- The joint minute of agreed facts including Innes’ admission he killed Mrs Burke and her daughter.
- Police said Innes confessed the killing and Mrs Burke’s husband spoke of his fears when she disappeared.
- The young alleged rape victim told how she saw Innes hit Mrs Burke with a hammer.
- The girl’s evidence that she thought Jellica had been killed during a game of hide and seek.
- DNA from victims found on condom and hammer.
- Innes told police he couldn’t look after “screaming” child.
- Innes described how and why he killed Mrs Burke and her daughter.
- Killer admits second child could have died if police had not arrived.
- A psychiatrist told how Innes changed his story three times about why he killed Mrs Burke.
- The judge directed the jury to find Innes guilty of murder.
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