A man will be sentenced next month for a violent attack on a Forfar woman who was later killed.
At the town’s sheriff court on Monday, Kevin Robertson admitted an indictment containing a charge of assaulting Catherine Sandeman in a case which could have seen evidence being led from beyond the grave.
The discovery of Ms Sandeman’s body at a house in Forfar last October sparked a murder inquiry and a man who subsequently appeared in private in connection with the death has been remanded to the state hospital at Carstairs.
Robertson, 51, of Goosecroft, Forfar, had been due to face trial on three charges relating to alleged offences against Ms Sandeman.
A guilty plea to a single amended charge on the indictment was accepted by the Crown.
Robertson admitted assaulting Ms Sandeman at a house in Goosecroft on February 5 by repeatedly punching and slapping her on the head and body, repeatedly placing his hands around her neck and compressing her neck whereby her breathing was restricted, all to her injury.
Sheriff Kevin Veal requested social work reports and sentence on Robertson was deferred until March 6. Bail was continued.
An earlier hearing of the case had been told that any trial would have involved the Crown’s submission of an application seeking permission for a statement to be admitted where the person was unable to give evidence, including the circumstances of them being deceased.
* Lee Arne Hopsdal, 32, was remanded to Carstairs following a private appearance at the sheriff court at which a Crown application for a mental health treatment order was granted.
Hopsdal had earlier made no plea after appearing on a murder petition.