Date: Fri, 19 Jan 1996 17:57:21 -0800 From: Ron Buckmire Date: Tue, 9 Jan 1996 16:20:41 +0000 It seems there was a problem with my recent posting. I reproduce it here - forgive duplication if already seen. Brian The Scotsman Sat 6 Jan 96 Landmark verdict on lesbian killing. A lesbian was jailed for eight years yesterday for killing a man who was said to have been sleeping with her girlfriend. The High Court in Glasgow heard that Vicki McKean, 28, stabbed Stephen Blackwell, 40, from London, minutes after being told he had a realtionship with Connie Andrew, 27. McKean lunged at Mr Blackwell as he sat on her settee and stabbed him 11 times, the court heard. One wound sliced through his rib, a lung and went though his heart. During her three-day trial, McKean made British legal history by becoming the first lesbian to be allowed to contest a murder charge with a defence that she killed while acting under provocation. Normally such a defence is only open in cases where a man has found his wife in the act of adultery and kills her lover on the spot. The jury of eight women and seven men, however, accepted the defence as a valid one in a lesbian relationship, and found McKean not guilty of murder, but guilty of the lesser crime of culpable homicide. Sentencing her, Lord MacLean said: "The jury has obviously considered with care all the evidence in this case and have taken a merciful view of your position. "It is nevertheless a very serious crime even though I have to accept the jury's verdict that you acted under provocation. You took a life by means of a weapon, and it would appear an innocent life as well." During the trial the court heard of the long-standing relationship between McKean and Miss Andrew, childhood friends who became lovers and started living together four years ago. On 30 June last year, while they were on holiday in Benidorm, they went through a form of marriage ceremony. McKean told the court she considered Miss Andrew to be her wife. Hugh Matherws, QC, who conducted the defence, said after the sentence was issued: "This case is a legal milestone. Our researches went back to the very first case of provocation in 1731, when a man found his wife and lover in bed and killed him with a sword. All subsequent cases have involved heterosexual relationships and this is the first one in Britain to invlove a homosexual relationship."