Defence plea in baby death trial

The child died from injuries sustained at this cottage

Defence teams have asked a jury to acquit a mother who is accused of killing her baby and to convict her former partner of a lesser charge.

Andrea Bone, 20, has denied murdering her daughter Carla-Nicole by failing to protect her at a remote cottage in Aberdeenshire in May.

Her co-accused and former partner Sandy McClure, 27, has also denied killing the 13-month-old child.

The jury at the High Court in Stonehaven had earlier been told that Mr McClure swung Carla-Nicole by her ankles "like a pendulum" and her head had repeatedly hit a wall.

Andrea Bone has denied murdering her child

His counsel, James Reilly, asked the jury not find Mr McClure guilty of murder.

He said: "I'm not suggesting that Mr McClure is innocent, far from it, but what I am going to be suggesting to you is that he is not guilty of murder, but that he is guilty of culpable homicide, the second most serious crime known to our law.

"Quite obviously Mr McClure had no intention of killing Nicole but neither did he have that quality or level of wickedness which would categorise his behaviour as so reckless that he did not care whether Nicole lived or died."

Mr Reilly said that all the evidence had shown that Mr McClure had loved Carla-Nicole and that he had treated her as if she was his own daughter.

He told the jury that Mr McClure's behaviour had been borne out of frustration and that he had never intended to kill the little girl.

Jack Davidson QC, who is defending Andrea Bone, called for the jury to acquit her.

Personality disorders

He said it was a "ghastly" case but he urged them to consider carefully the wording of the charge.

He said there had been no evidence that she had encouraged Mr McClure to attack her daughter or that she had condoned his behaviour.

He reminded the jury of psychological evidence that the jury had heard stating that Ms Bone suffered from low intelligence and three personality disorders.

This combination of factors may have prevented her from stepping in to stop the attacks on her daughter, Mr Davidson said.

The case was adjourned until Thursday.