A former academic who beat his scientist ex-wife to death almost 45 years ago has dropped plans to appeal against his conviction and sentence.
Retired research scientist Christopher Harrisson denied killing 32-year-old Brenda Page in Aberdeen a year after the couple were divorced. The body of the genetics expert, who was described as a "brilliant scientist", was found on her blood-stained bed in her home on 14 July 1978.
Harrisson, 82, was found guilty of the murder following a trial at the High Court in Aberdeen in March. He was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 20 years before he can apply for parole.
Harrisson instructed his legal team to challenge both his conviction and sentence and an "imitation of intention to appeal" was lodged at the High Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh. He was given a deadline of June 6 to file papers setting out the grounds of his appeal but did not submit anything meaning it is deemed abandoned.
Dr Page was subjected to a "sustained and vicious" attack at the hands of Harrisson in what became one of Scotland's most notorious unsolved murders. Police arrested Harrisson at the time but it was decided that there was not enough evidence to bring him to trial.
However, the case was re-examined in 2015. Using new scientific techniques, prosecutors were able to prove that Harrisson had beaten his former wife to death after he spent decades maintaining his innocence.
A minute flake of paint found on Dr Page's bedroom window - which had been forced open - was matched to the paint on Harrisson's Mini Traveller car. DNA samples taken from Dr Page's flat were examined using modern forensic techniques.
The court heard that one sperm sample was 590million times more likely to have come from Harrisson rather than from any other male unrelated to him. Harrisson had met Dr Page, who was principal of the genetics department at the University of Aberdeen's medical school, while they were students at the University of Glasgow in 1970.
They married in 1972, but divorced five years later. The trial heard that Dr Page lived in fear of Harrisson following their split, with prosecutors claiming he had been "consumed with rage and anger" and upset at her part-time work with an escort agency.
Dr Page sustained multiple head injuries after being repeatedly struck with a blunt implement at her home of Allan Street, Aberdeen. Earlier this year, Dr Page's sister Rita Ling, 88, said Harrisson was prolonging her family's agony by planning to appeal.
She said: "This is very unwelcome news but I am not surprised because as far as he is concerned nothing is his fault. I was really hoping we could put it all behind us and I thought it was finished.
"It took such a long time for the case to come to court in the first place and we now face another wait before it is over."
A spokesman for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service confirmed the deadline to appeal was June 6 and said they hadn't received anything from Harrisson.
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