OAP accused murder charge reduced

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The man accused of killing Perthshire woman Dolina MacLean has been told he cannot be convicted of murder.

The jury will now consider whether John Lawson, 48, is guilty of the lesser charge of culpable homicide.

The trial at the High Court in Edinburgh has heard six days of evidence relating to the death of 87-year-old Ms MacLean.

Her body was found in woods near Perth last May. Mr Lawson denied abducting and murdering her.

Woodland path

Temporary judge Roger Craik QC told the jury that following submissions from Mr Lawson's defence counsel, Gordon Jackson QC, there was insufficient evidence to convict him on the charge of murder.

But he told jurors they could still find him guilty of the lesser, but still serious, charge of culpable homicide.

The jury of eight women and seven men have now retired to consider their verdict.

Mr Lawson is accused of getting into Ms MacLean's car at the Tesco supermarket car park in Crieff Road, Perth, on 30 May last year and demanding that she drive off, placing her in a state of "fear, alarm and distress".

The former French Foreign Legionnaire Lawson had denied murdering Ms MacLean, from Stanley in Perthshire, and subsequently trying to defeat the ends of justice by burying her body in a ditch.