WOMAN CLAIMS PSYCHIC DREAMS ABOUT HER MURDERER GRANDSON

High Court in Glasgow

A convicted murderer wasted police time by reporting his wife's car stolen when it had been torched.

Kenneth Lawday was jailed for life at the High Court in Glasgow after battering Robert Wallace, 25, to death and dumping his body in a swollen burn in Bannockburn.

His grandmother, who claimed she was psychic, told the court she had a premonition of a death on the night the murder took place.

Helen McLeod, then 64, said she dreamed of a black swan swimming on water and knew instinctively that her grandson Lawday would be in trouble.

On Monday, Perth Sheriff Court was told that Lawday, who was freed after serving a 15-year sentence, had made a false claim to police about his wife's car.

The 41-year-old, of Ferguson Park Road, Blairgowrie, admitted wasting police time and rendering the public liable to suspicion of theft and fire-raising.

The court was told that Lawday informed officers the Vauxhall Astra had been stolen and the burnt out vehicle was found close to his home on January 17 this year.

Fiscal depute Robbie Brown said: "It was his ex-wife's car. Police found it not far away from where it was said to have been parked. It had some fire damage.

"The accused was interviewed the following day and admitted his part in the incident. Three officers were involved in total in the investigation."

Solicitor Mike Ferrie, defending, said his client's murder conviction, from 1994, was simply a case of him "going too far" during a dispute.

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis deferred sentence for reports.

During Lawday's murder trial, Mrs McLeod said she had always had a "spiritual bond" with her grandson, and to her a black swan meant death. She said her nightmares about the black swan recurred nightly for three weeks, until the body of Robert Wallace was recovered by police divers from the burn in Bannockburn.

She said she was unaware until she received a letter from Lawday after his arrest that he too was being haunted by dreams of a black swan. She read out the letter in court and told prosecutors: "From the moment Kenneth was arrested and the body found the dreams never came back to me."

Lawday, then 24, and 20-year-old Ian McCallum, of Cowie, Stirlingshire, were found guilty of punching, kicking, and stamping on Mr Wallace and throwing him into a burn and abandoning him in adverse weather in Ladywell Park, Bannockburn, on December 18, 1993, and murdering him.

They were also found guilty of robbing Mr Wallace, of Seaforth Road, Falkirk, of his jacket, a watch, and £50. Lord Allanbridge jailed Lawday for life and ordered McCallum to be detained for life.

The court was told the three men had been drinking in Bannockburn together that day and the accused persuaded the deceased to go for a walk in a local park in the early evening.

McCallum was to tell police later how Lawday had no money and wanted cash from Mr Wallace and assaulted him to get it.

The trial was told that McCallum, who had stayed mainly in his room since the night of the killing, eventually broke under the strain and went to the police and said he had seen Lawday dumping the body in the burn.