New evidence to be considered in Edinburgh murder case

APPEAL judges have set dates for hearings in which they'll consider new evidence relating to a woman who was jailed in 2008 for murdering her boyfriend.

Hearings are set to take place in the new year.

Lawyers acting for Wendy Graham want the appeal to consider freshly acquired evidence regarding their client’s mental health at the time of her partner’s death.

Ms Graham’s legal team addressed the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh on Tuesday. In July 2017, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission sent the case to the court after obtaining previously unavailable evidence.

The commission said the evidence suggested her responsibility may have been diminished.

Ms Graham was convicted of killing Mark Thomson in Edinburgh in December 2008.

Jurors at her trial heard that Ms Graham, 50, had repeatedly stabbed Mr Thomson, leaving him bleeding to death from 10 wounds at his flat in in the Inch area of Edinburgh in June 2008.

She told a friend in a text message: “I hate him. I have got to get him out of my life for once and for all.”

Graham has always admitted responsibility for the killing.

In a statement, the SCCRC said: “It appeared to the commission that her conviction for murder rather than culpable homicide may have been a miscarriage of justice.”

On Tuesday, judges Lord Carloway, Lord Brodie and Lord Drummond Young arranged for a procedural hearing to take place on December 19 2017.

Other hearings will take place in the new year.