A man who killed his wife with an axe as she spoke to her mum on the phone has been freed after serving 14 years of a life sentence.
Emrys Taylor, 79, was released on parole last month but his victim’s furious family say he should have been kept behind bars for the horrific crime. Taylor told a 999 operator minutes after killing Lillian: “I’ve just killed my wife. I’ll go to prison for the rest of my life. It doesn’t matter.
“I’ve f***ing bashed her head in. There’s no need for an ambulance. Take her straight to the morgue.”
Taylor hit Lillian with an axe he took from their garden shed at their home in Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, in April 2008. She was speaking on the phone to her mum Lena as he launched the frenzied attack. Lillian’s sister Liz Martin yesterday says the justice system in Scotland “stinks” as she relived the moment she found out he was being freed.
Liz, 62, got a letter informing her that Taylor had been released. It arrived on September 12 – the day that should have been Lillian’s 58th birthday. She said: “I actually screamed when I opened the letter. I was so distraught. It took me right back to how I felt when I heard he’d killed her.
“It’s like she’s just been killed again, because the small comfort I had knowing he was locked up and couldn’t hurt anyone else has been taken away. The justice system stinks. Where is the justice when life means 14 years? I felt like I was mourning my wee sister all over again.”
Welshman Taylor served his sentence at a prison in Wales after he was convicted at the High Court in Edinburgh of Lillian’s murder. Liz added that her letter from the Scottish Parole Board told her Taylor’s licence conditions meant he could not travel to Edinburgh or the Lothian area without permission from his probation officer.
She said: “So he could apply to come up to the rugby, which he loved, and end up sitting near a member of our family. What kind of justice is that?
“The people who make these decisions clearly have never had a family member murdered or they wouldn’t be able to show such leniency.”
Liz wrote to the parole board in April, referring them to a letter she had sent in prior to his previous freedom bid in 2020. It underlined the horror of the murder and the lasting effect on the family, saying their grief remained raw.
Taylor, who was released in time to celebrate his 79th birthday, was sentenced to life imprisonment at the High Court. A judge ordered him to serve a minimum of 12 years and six months before being considered for freedom.
Once a lifer has served the minimum sentence set by the court, he or she is entitled to a parole hearing. The process is automatically revisited at intervals if an application is rejected.
Lillian’s family say Taylor was jealous of her devotion to her mum and dad Matthew, both now dead. He became irate at the amount of time she spent caring for her mum, it’s been claimed.
Lillian was making her usual call on the evening she died. She was found to have suffered severe head injuries, including multiple fractures to the skull, jaw and cheekbones.
Liz said: “How could anyone say that someone who did that is no longer a danger?
“What he did killed my mother as well. She was 79 and didn’t keep well but with Lillian around she was happy and well-loved. When Lillian was killed, Mum was just miserable and crying all the time and taking to her bed.
“It made it worse when Taylor tried to claim our mum had driven him to it, which was cruel and malicious. He hated Mum because Lillian loved her so much, and he wanted to hurt her, which is why he killed her when they were talking.
“He wanted Mum to hear it. She said she’d never forget the gurgling sound that followed the blow. She just knew he’d killed her. She was totally consumed by grief and was dead within a year.”
Lillian’s dad Matthew also died a short time later from cancer. Liz added: “It would be hard to imagine a more savage act or a more brutal death, and I believe it was planned and premeditated.
“Taylor should never have been freed. He didn’t deserve mercy and should have died in prison for what he did.
“After the sentencing, the prosecutor said to the family that the judge had given him a fairly short punishment part to his sentence, probably because of his age, but he told us, ‘He’ll never get out’, and we believed him. I feel angry that we were misled and let down.
“How can anyone trust justice in this country when life just means a few years? Our family will always feel the consequences of his actions, and I just hope he is too unwell to hurt anyone else.”
The Parole Board said it does not comment on individual cases.
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