Killer laughed after setting his victim ablaze in West Lothian

A killer who set his former partner alight will be held in Scotland’s maximum security psychiatric hospital without limit of time.

Victim: Ann Drummond

Kevin Marks,48, stood laughing over businesswoman Ann Drummond ,47, as she rolled around the ground in a bid to extinguish the flames engulfing her body.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard started the fire in her car in June last year at a road near Bathgate, West Lothian.

Ms Drummond had been so concerned by Marks’s poor mental health that she had gone to meet him at court moments after he had been released on bail on other charges.

Maximum security: Marks will be held at the State Hospital, Carstairs

Paramedics took her to hospital where it was discovered she had suffered more than 80 per cent burns.

She later died at Glasgow’s Royal Infirmary Hospital after doctors concluded her injuries were so severe that she couldn’t survive.

Police arrested Marks, also of Bathgate, and charged him with murder.

But last month prosecutors accepted a not guilty plea from Marks on the basis that his mental health was so poor that he wasn’t responsible for his actions.

Judge Simon Collins QC heard psychiatrists who had examined Marks concluded that he had suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.

Medical staff at the State Hospital at Carstairs in Lanarkshire recommended Marks be held without limit of time for treatment, which Judge Collins agreed to.

He said: “This is a horrifying and tragic case. There is nothing which the court can say or do which will ease the pain and suffering of the friends and family of the deceased.

“I am satisfied that the criteria for a treatment and restriction order have however been made out.

“I also satisfied that it is in the interests of the safety for the pubic that such orders are made.”

Marks was arrested days before attacking Ms Drummond by police officers and was twice assessed by community forensic nurses.

He was judged fit to be released and he later appeared at Livingston Sheriff Court and was granted bail.

Marks then doused Ms Marks with petrol and set her ablaze in her car on unclassified countryside road near to Bathgate.

Passing motorists raised the alarm and Prosecutor Alan Cameron told the court: “In the ambulance Ms Drummond spoke to paramedics. She said that she had been in the passenger seat and that Mr Marks had poured petrol on her and set her alight.

“She said that she had got out of the car and while she was rolling on the ground trying to put the fire out he was standing over her laughing.

“It was noted at this time that she had sustained head injuries. When asked about them she said that she did not know how they occurred.

“At hospital Ms Drummond was found to have burns to approximately 85 per cent of her body.”

Mr Cameron told temporary judge Collins that Ms Drummond had been in a relationship with Marks for around two and a half years and the pair split a week before she died.

He had previously helped Ms Drummond with her dog walking business.

Psychiatrists who have assessed Marks believe he has a “superficial” understanding of his actions.

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