Annalise Johnstone’s brother cleared of her murder

Annalise Johnstone’s brother was yesterday cleared of killing his 22-year-old sister by repeatedly slashing her throat from ear to ear with a Stanley knife.

Annalise Johnstone, 22, was found dead in a wooded area close to the B8062 between Auchterarder and Dunning in Perth and Kinross.

A jury at the High Court in Livingston found a murder charge against Jordan Johnstone, 25, not proven.

He had denied cutting his sibling’s throat at the Maggie Wall’s witch’s memorial near Dunning, Perthshire, on May 10 last year.

The unemployed builder – who like Annalise is a member of Scotland’s Traveller community – had denied committing what the prosecution described as the “ghastly” crime.

Jurers heard that Annalise’s horrific injuries would have caused her death within minutes as a result of massive blood loss.

A pathologist said the deep gashes in her neck which severed the main arteries and blood vessels to the brain and caused her to choke on her own blood were “unsurvivable”.

During a week-long trial at the High Court in Livingston, the jury was shown cctv footage from a private house showing car headlights and what appeared to be light from a torch or a mobile phone at the memorial between midnight and 2am on the morning Annalise disappeared.

Johnstone admitted in evidence he had been driving Newlands car when he stopped at the monument to let Annalise out to take photographs in the dark.

He also admitted carrying his dead sister in his arms “like a child” for two miles before dumping it behind a stone wall on the B8062 road.

However, he blamed his ex girlfriend and former co-accused Angela Newlands, 28, for the murder, claiming she had threatened to have him charged with raping her and sexually abusing her daughter if he did not cover up her alleged crime.

Newlands, who had denied murder and attempting to defeat the ends of justice, was acquitted of murder after judge Lady Scott ruled there was insufficient evidence to convict her. The Crown then withdrew all other charges against her.

Giving evidence in his own defence Johnstone confessed that he had changed his appearance, burned blood-stained clothes and buried the weapon which could have linked him to the death. The jury also heard a recording of him falsely reporting Annalise as a missing person to police.