Police ScotlandA man and woman have been jailed for the torture and murder of a woman at a flat in Ayr.
Michelle Ramage, 43, and Ryan Hill, 27, inflicted more than 130 injuries on Susan Turner, 41, including choking her and stabbing her with scissors in March 2023.
Ramage pleaded guilty to the murder and was jailed for at least 22 years, while Hill was found guilty of the same charge by jury and received a minimum 20-year sentence at the High Court in Glasgow.
Lord Mulholland told the two their actions were designed to “demean and disfigure” Ms Turner, warning them they may never be freed.
Warning: The following contains details that some readers may find distressing
The trial heard how Ms Turner stayed near to Ramage’s lover Jason Bell, 51, at the time of the killing.
Mr Bell’s brother Alexander, 46, told the court how Ms Turner would visit his sibling two to three times a day.
Jurors heard the brother told police in a statement that she had “constantly ” texted his brother.
He added: “You could see [Ramage] was getting annoyed. She was becoming jealous – that was obvious.”
The court heard Ramage confronted Ms Turner shortly before the killing.
Alexander Bell also told the court that on 26 March he was at a friend’s house when his brother turned up looking like a “nervous wreck”, saying “they are going to end up murdering her” or “they are going to end up doing away with her”.
Jason Bell eventually went back to his flat. When police turned up they found him sitting outside.
Officers had to force entry to the dimly-lit property.
Sgt Craig McLachlan recalled “the very strong smell of blood” in the air and then “a visibly deceased female” with injuries lying on the floor.
Ms Turner had been strangled with a dressing gown cord, her hair chopped and ripped out as well as being hit with mugs, a machete, a bat, golf club, chain and radio.
She was also “scored” with a blade over her body.
Ms Turner had three children aged between nine and 23.
Jason Bell was asked who the woman was, but claimed not to know.
Pleas ‘ignored’
In his closing speech, prosecutor Chris McKenna told jurors there was “barely a part of Susan Turner’s body that was not injured”.
The prosecutor said Ramage had 37 previous convictions including a five-year jail-term for abduction and serious assault in 2010.
Hill meantime had 11 convictions with a number also for violence. He was on bail at the time for assault, which he was later locked up for.
Tony Lenehan KC, defending Ramage, said she was someone who had been “brutalised” from a previous relationship, but was “a woman capable herself of brutality”.
Hill’s KC Shelagh McCall said he had a troubled childhood and that in 2021 the death of his grandmother – who brought him up – had affected him, causing him to “spiral into alcohol addiction”.
Lord Mulholland told the two: “You have both been convicted of the murder of a defenceless woman, who posed no threat to either of you.
“As she was being subjected to the homicidal assault, she begged you to let her go.
“You ignored her pleas and subjected her to a brutal and cowardly assault.
“It was akin to torture clearly designed to demean and disfigure her as a woman.”
Mr Bell had also faced a murder charge, but was acquitted.
