A man who murdered a woman and her two-year-old daughter before burying their bodies under his kitchen floor has failed in a bid to appeal his conviction and prison sentence.
Back in February, Andrew Innes was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 36 years behind bars for the murders of Bennylyn Burke, 25, and toddler Jellica.
Innes hit Ms Burke on the head with a hammer before stabbing her with a samurai sword and then bludgeoning her with the handle of the blade and the hammer.
A few days later, he then asphyxiated Jellica. He then buried both bodies under the kitchen floor of his house in Dundee.
Shortly after his conviction, Innes lodged his intent to appeal, but his application has now been quashed.
The former software engineer now has two weeks to appeal against that decision.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service told Sky News: “The current position with this appeal is that it has been refused leave to appeal at sift.
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“There is now an opportunity to appeal that decision and the time period for that is 13 June 2023.”
The crimes took place at Innes’ house in Troon Avenue, Dundee, between 20 February and 5 March 2021.
Ms Burke, originally from the Philippines, moved to Bristol a few years ago and met Innes via an online dating site.
Innes drove down to Bristol during the pandemic and brought Ms Burke and Jellica back to Scotland with him.
Innes admitted the killings but had denied murder and instead lodged a special defence of lacking criminal responsibility and diminished responsibility.
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During his testimony, he described being “apocalyptically angry” before launching his fatal assault on Ms Burke.
Innes, who was captured on CCTV buying a hammer from B&Q on the day of the murder, said it was “not a useful weapon”, adding: “If this was premeditated in any way it would have been way cleaner.”
Asked why he killed Jellica, Innes replied: “Because I was insane as a result of the steroids.”
The jury had been told that Innes had taken steroid medication for a condition and had not slept at the time of the deaths.
However, the judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to support Innes’ defence that the medication had caused him to suffer steroid-induced psychosis which led to him going “insane”.
Following a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh, Innes was also found guilty of sexually assaulting Jellica, raping a primary-school aged child and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
During sentencing, Lord Beckett stated the charges were “amongst the very worst crimes which have come before the High Court”.
In an interview with Sky News, Ms Burke’s sister, Shela Aquino, said she could “forgive” Innes as long as he faces the consequences of his actions and spends the rest of his life behind bars.
