Accountant admits to killing wife

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A former accountant accused of stabbing his wife to death told a jury: "I killed her".

David Lilburn, 45, claimed a "black shadow" ordered him to attack 43-year-old Ann at the family home in Paisley last July. She suffered 86 stab wounds.

The dramatic admission came as Mr Lilburn took to the witness box during his murder trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

The court heard that Mr Lilburn had long-standing mental health problems.

However, in the weeks before his wife's death he admitted he was "flying" and feeling "more than well".

The court heard how it was around this time that he paid £2,000 for a private detective to track down a former female schoolmate before starting an affair with another woman.

Mr Lilburn described this as "a fantastic adventure", but said it caused the "complete destruction" of his wife.

'Sense of foreboding'

Despite feeling better, Mr Lilburn said 28 July - the day before his wife died - as "a very black day".

He told his QC Andrew Lamb: "I describe it as a sense of foreboding and things becoming black.

"My mood had tipped. I was not so upbeat as before."

Mr Lilburn said he remembered going out for dinner with his mistress Lynn McGuire that evening before returning to the family home in the early hours.

He said that while his wife was out he had gone back to the marital bed instead of the spare room where he had been sleeping.

"Perhaps if I had not done so, we would not be here today."

He told the court he had locked the bedroom door and was woken with his wife banging on it.

After letting her in, a row erupted.

I recollect stabbing her, yes. I don't recollect 86 times David Lilburn

The accused told the court: "Further words were exchanged and she threw a mobile phone at me.

"I then attacked her. I banged her head on the door frame and banged her head on the floor. I noticed bleeding coming from her head.

"This black shadow then appeared and told me to kill her. All conversations with it were by telepathic means."

Mr Lilburn said he thought he then went downstairs and collected knives from the kitchen. He said he was "egged on" to kill Mrs Lilburn.

Mr Lamb asked him: "Do you recollect stabbing your wife repeatedly?"

Mr Lilburn replied: "I recollect stabbing her, yes. I don't recollect 86 times."

Mr Lamb: "You accept that the evidence demonstrates that you were responsible for your wife's death?"

The accused told the QC: "I killed my wife."

The father-of-three also claimed that he could see the "black shadow" when detectives later interviewed him, but did not mention it in case they "carted him away".

Prosecutor Derek Ogg QC later claimed Mr Lilburn had acted "in a rage" and murdered his wife in a "cold fury".

Mr Ogg also said any suggestion of a "black shadow" was "nonsense".

The advocate depute then referred to earlier evidence when it was claimed Mr Lilburn told his mistress that if the charge was reduced to culpable homicide, he would go to an open prison and be released earlier.

'Scheming person'

Mr Ogg said: "This makes you look like a calculated, scheming person with no remorse for the damage that you done.

"Someone who commits murder and believes that they can get away with it."

Mr Lilburn replied: "No."

The QC also asked: "Everyone that saw you in the lead up to your dreadful act thought that you were fine.

"No matter who they are, everybody said that you were fine. Pull the wool over their eyes?"

Mr Lilburn replied: "That is disingenuous."

Mr Ogg concluded: "People listening to you might think you are a self-centred, conceited, middle-aged man who had an affair.

"When your wife said 'enough, get out', you lost the rag and stabbed her 86 times. Is that not it?"

Lilburn said: "I did not lose the rag."

Mr Lilburn has denied murdering his wife at their home on Arniston Way, Paisley, on 29 July last year.

It is alleged he repeatedly struck her on the head, seized her by the arm, repeatedly struck her on the head and body with knives and that he previously envinced malice and ill will towards her.

The trial, before Judge Ian Peebles QC, continues.