A woman on trial for the murder of a Montrose mother-of-three produced a knife and asked a “betrayed” pal if she “wanted something done about Kim?”
Kimberley MacKenzie, whose dismembered body parts were recovered by police just days later, was shunned by her friend Penny Verrall after she found out she had slept with her son.
A jury at Glasgow High Court heard that 37-year-old Miss MacKenzie had had sex with Danny Verrall, then 19, shortly after his release from HMYOI Polmont.
Steven Jackson, 40, and Michelle Higgins, face allegations that they murdered Miss MacKenzie and cut up her body at a flat in Montrose town centre. The pair deny all charges against them.
Philip Keilloh, who is Miss Verrall’s partner and also her full-time carer, said Miss Verral had “gone mental” when she found out that Miss MacKenzie had spent the night with her son Danny.
Mr Keilloh said soon after Miss Verrall was told, Miss MacKenzie called at their house.
“I told her not to come back,” said Mr Keilloh. “Penny said she felt betrayed by her.”
Mr Keilloh, who said he occasionally “smoked legal highs”, went to Jackson’s home with Miss Verrall later that day. “It was either to borrow money or see if he had legal highs to try and calm Penny down,” he said.
Higgins came outside when they buzzed the door, the court heard. “Penny was still angry,” Mr Keilloh said. “We may have told her (Higgins) about Kim and Danny.
“She couldn’t believe that Kim would do that to one of her friends.
“At that point, she produced a small knife, like a Sgian Dubh, from a sheath. She had it in her pocket.
“She asked if we wanted something done about Kim?”
Mr Keilloh told the court: “I made a motion, like a finger across the throat, and said I didn’t want this, but I wanted this: and punched my hand.
“I didn’t want anyone to be stabbed or cut, but maybe a punch in the face: A reminder to treat your friends better, that sort of thing. We didn’t use the word ‘killed’ or anything like that.”
Danny Verrall, 20, told the court he met Miss MacKenzie at his mother’s house, where he occasionally stayed.
He left with her at the end of the night, and she went back to his flat.
Mr Verrall went back to his mum the next morning and brother Ryan,19, and friend Le Davidson, 20, told her what had happened.
Mr Verrall said: “She was very, very angry. She felt betrayed.
“She was angry until she found out that Kim had died and she kind of blamed herself for it.”
The trial before Lady Rae continues.
Pair deny series of charges
Steven Jackson and Michelle Higgins are both accused of murdering Kimberley MacKenzie at Jackson’s ground-floor flat in the town’s Market Street on October 27, last year.
It is alleged they struck her with a hammer, machete and knife or similar items.
Miss MacKenzie’s body was allegedly dismembered using a saw, knives and a screw driver and parts of the body were said to be wrapped in bin liners and bags and hidden in bins at sites in Montrose, including Market Street, Paton’s Lane, Chapel Street and William Phillips Drive.
It is further alleged that Miss MacKenzie’s head and other body parts were put inside a rucksack and suitcase and concealed in a shower cubicle.
Walls, floors and other surfaces of Jackson’s flat are said to have been cleaned. Caustic soda and bleach are alleged to have been poured into a bath.
Clothes and footwear and a bloodstained rug are also said to have been disposed of. The charge claims this was all done “with intent to avoid detection, arrest and prosecution.”
Jackson also faces further charges of being involved in the supply of class A drug heroin between May and November 2015. It is further alleged he had a machete in a public place at the Fair O’ Blair pub and at a property in Balmoral Road, both in Blairgowrie, between November 3 and 4 last year.
Higgins is accused of having a knife in Montrose High Street on October 27.
The pair deny all charges.
