A man who killed a woman and her two-year-old daughter before burying their bodies under his kitchen floor has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 36 years. Andrew Innes, 52, was found guilty of murdering Bennylyn Burke, 25, and Jellica Burke after a five-day trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.
He was also convicted of sexually abusing the toddler and raping another child at his Dundee home between February 20 and March 5 2021. Bennylyn and Jellica Burke’s family said they would be “forever haunted” by Innes’s crimes.
Judge Lord Beckett instructed the jury to return guilty verdicts on both murder charges, following medical evidence heard on Innes’ state of mind at the time. Innes, who at times sobbed in the witness box while giving evidence in his defence, had denied the charges but the jury of eight men and seven women spent just under two and a half hours to find he was responsible for the crimes.
In a statement via the Crown Office’s Victim Information and Advice (Via) service, the victims’ family, who travelled from the Philippines to attend the trial, said: “A big part of our family has been torn from us. We shall never see Bennylyn and Jellica again.
“We shall never know our beloved Jellica or ever see her grow up.” The statement continued: “We shall be forever haunted by what happened to (Bennylyn) in this far-off place such a long way from us, her family.”
It concluded: “There is nothing that can restore Bennylyn and Jellica to us. But the jury’s guilty verdict for murder provides some comfort to our family and friends and brings justice for Bennylyn and Jellica.”
During the trial, the jury witnessed some of the most harrowing evidence to come before a Scottish court. Innes admitted killing Ms Burke and Jellica days later. But he denied murdering them and lodged a special defence of diminished responsibility.
On his arrest, when he was asked where Ms Burke was, Innes told Pc Gavin Burns: “She’s under the kitchen floor.” And, of the two-year-old’s whereabouts, he told Dc Paul Hardie: “Under the floor with mum. I couldn’t look after a child. The child was screaming.”
Innes had claimed the killing her was an act of self-defence but he admitted this was untrue as he took to the witness box on the third day of his trial. Instead, the court was told, he was “apocalyptically angry” as he hit her in the head repeatedly with a hammer before stabbing her with a samurai sword retrieved from his office.
After he murdered them, with the toddler having been killed around three days after Ms Burke, Innes hid them below the kitchen floor at his home in Troon Avenue, Dundee.
Judge Lord Beckett sentenced Innes to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 36 years behind bars.
