A jealous boyfriend has been convicted of killing a man after catching him alone with his partner and believing they’d had sex.
Robbie Smullen was found guilty of stabbing 22-year-old Barry Dixon in the heart in a Perth flat after an eight-day trial.
Smullen (23) had claimed the fatal injury was inflicted when Barry pulled a knife on him and they both ”tripped and fell” during a struggle over the weapon.
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But a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh rejected his defence of self-defence and returned a majority verdict of culpable homicide on Thursday.
Barry was wearing just boxer shorts when he was knifed in the chest after going back to the flat with Smullen’s “on/off” partner Shannon Beattie (25).
Wearing a dark suit, Smullen showed no emotion as the verdict was delivered.
He had denied assaulting Barry in Perth’s Wallace Court, striking him on the body with a knife or similar instrument, and murdering him on June 4, 2019.
His mother Mary Smullen (46) had been on trial alongside him, accused of pretending to police that Barry was stabbed by her son’s “on/off” partner Shannon Beattie.
After her son gave evidence in his own defence on Tuesday, she pled guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Judge Lady Carmichael deferred sentence on both Robbie Smullen and his mother until April 16 for reports. Mary Smullen wept as she sat near her son in the dock.
