A double murder suspect described being “apocalyptically angry” before hitting a woman on the back of the head with a hammer in a house in Dundee.

Warning: This story contains graphic content

Andrew Innes, 52, denies murdering Bennylyn Burke, 25, and her two-year-old daughter, Jellica, and has instead lodged a special defence of diminished responsibility.

Giving evidence during his trial at the High Court in Edinburgh on Thursday, Innes was questioned over his purchase of a hammer from a B&Q on the morning of Ms Burke’s death.

He said: “It was ridiculous that I had returned with a hammer when I went out for petrol.”

When he returned home from shopping, Ms Burke, who was originally from the Philippines then moved to Bristol, was in the kitchen cooking. It was there Innes attacked her.

‘I was apocalyptically angry’

Innes explained that Ms Burke reminded him of his wife, who he had separated from and currently lives in Japan, and another former partner, stating that “from the neck down” Ms Burke was similar to his wife and from “the head up” like the other woman.

He said he “thought of all the nasty stuff” his wife had allegedly done and stated the other woman “left him in the most horrible way”.

Innes said: “I was apocalyptically angry.”

It was then that he attacked Ms Burke with the hammer.

He told the court it was “not a useful weapon”, noting that he had a samurai sword in his office.

Innes stated: “If this was premeditated in any way it would have been way cleaner.”

He claimed at one point Ms Burke chased him with the hammer. Ms Burke was later stabbed.

Innes said he remembered the “initial strike” and wrestling on the kitchen floor before it spilled into the living room.

He said: “I was just hitting her until she stopped moving.”

Innes later added: “It was an anger I have never experienced before in my entire life.”

‘I was insane as a result of the steroids’

During questioning by defence lawyer Brian McConnachie KC, Innes stated that he killed Jellica two or three days after Ms Burke and buried them both under his kitchen floor.

He said the toddler wanted her mum, adding that it “seemed logical to me to put her with her mum”.

Asked why he killed Jellica, he replied: “Because I was insane as a result of the steroids.”

The jury have been told that Innes was taking steroid medication for a condition and had not slept at the time of the deaths.

Read more:
Andrew Innes admits killing Bennylyn and Jellica Burke but denies murder
Toddler ‘killed during game of hide and seek’, court hears
Andrew Innes told police officer: ‘She’s under the floor’

A joint minute of agreed evidence between prosecutors and the defence team was read out to a jury at the start of the trial.

It was accepted that Innes stabbed Ms Burke with a knife as well as repeatedly striking her on the head with a hammer and the handle of the blade.

It was also accepted that Innes asphyxiated Jellica before burying both bodies under the kitchen floor of his property.

Innes denies a further charge of raping a primary school-aged child and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

All of the alleged incidents are said to have taken place at Innes’s house in Troon Avenue, Dundee, between 20 February and 5 March 2021.

The trial, before Lord Beckett, continues.

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