Inverness pensioner gets life for ‘callous’ murder
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A MERCILESS Inverness pensioner has been jailed for life for murdering a woman in her own home in an “utterly wicked” attack.
Michael Taylor (72) was yesterday ordered to serve at least 16 years for the fatal assault on Elizabeth MacKay, who also went by the surname Muir.
The 60-year-old was repeatedly punched and bludgeoned and stripped in the attack at Kintail Court in Hilton, in March last year.
Michael O’Grady QC, a judge at the High Court in Edinburgh, told Taylor: “Murder is never anything other than appalling.
“But the sheer callous brutality of the death you inflicted on this defenceless woman, and the terror she must have felt in her final minutes, is quite beyond comprehension.
“We will never know what led you to do what you did. But it hardly matters. What you did was utterly wicked and that wickedness must be at the forefront of my mind when imposing sentence.”
Taylor had earlier denied murder but was found guilty by a jury.
The trial heard he grabbed Ms MacKay and repeatedly punched her on the head and caused her to fall to the floor, losing consciousness. He then repeatedly struck her on the head, arms and hands with an object suspected to be a kitchen pot or pan.
At one stage he was diagnosed with a schizophrenic disorder and received treatment but in 2014 his medication ceased.
