Attempted murder trial sees photos of battered woman

A jury has been shown shocking pictures of a woman’s bruised and battered face as a man stood trial for her attempted murder.

The High Court in Livingston was shown pictures of Kate Lampitt-Adey. Picture: Lisa Ferguson

Pc Carolyn Cutter said she took the distressing images of Kate Lampitt-Adey lying on a bed in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

The photographs show the woman’s lips and eyes heavily swollen and the whites of her eyes were badly bloodshot.

As the images were shown in court yesterday, Pc Cutter pointed out bright red “fingertip marks” on Miss Lampitt-Adey’s neck on either side of her windpipe.

The evidence came on the second day of an attempted murder trial at the High Court in Livingston, West Lothian.

Scott Macintosh, 36, listed as a prisoner at HMP Edinburgh, denies assaulting Miss Lampitt-Adey to the danger of her life on August 9 last year by strangling her and pinching her windpipe. He denies assaulting police officers during the same incident.

Pc Cutter told how she went to the alleged victim’s tenement flat in Edinburgh’s Easter Road at 1am after a 999 call about a woman screaming for assistance.

As the 38-year-old police officer reached the door of the first floor flat, she said she heard a woman inside shouting: “‘Help me. He’s going to kill me.’ There were very high-pitched screaming noises, banging noises as well. I could hear a man’s voice shouting, indistinctly.”

When Macintosh eventually opened the door to police, she found Miss Lampitt-Adey barricaded in a bedroom.
Pc Cutter continued: “She was on the far side of the bed crouched on the floor – cowering would be the word I’d use.

“She was very distressed, she was sobbing and her eyes and mouth were bruised and swollen.”

She said she went with Miss Lampitt-Adey to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. There, she took the photographs of her injuries on her PDA at around 2am.

Pc Benjamin Wray told how he was also called to the scene to assist Pc Cutter and her colleague Pc Louis McGuire to detain Macintosh.

He said: “Mr Macintosh was very agitated, very aggressive in the way he was speaking to us. He challenged constable McGuire to a fight on a number of occasions and spat on him.

“We had to handcuff him and fast-strap him with Velcro leg restraints to carry him from the building.”

The trial, before Lady Rae continues.