Murder jury told 'use common sense'

Rena Salmon said she did not intend to kill Ms Stewart

A jury trying a woman who shot her husband's girlfriend dead have been told to use their common sense to decide whether she is guilty of murder.

The prosecution say 43-year-old Rena Salmon killed her former friend Lorna Stewart in cold blood when she shot her at close range on 10 September 2002.

But Mrs Salmon's defence say she suffered an "abnormality of mind" which, if accepted, would mean she should be found guilty of manslaughter.

Mrs Salmon has told the court she went to Ms Stewart's beauty salon in Chiswick, west London that day to kill herself as "no-one would want to use a centre where someone had blown their brains out".

She said she was taken aback by Ms Stewart's calm manner as she asked: "Have you come to shoot me?"

But prosecutor Peter Clarke QC said: "We say it is quite clear - she went in there to kill her rival, not herself. The gun barrel was pointing at Lorna Stewart throughout.

When someone kills in these circumstances, they should not be guilty of murder, they are guilty of manslaughter

Patrick Curran QC, defending

"There was no question of pointing it at her own head."

He added: "The shots ten seconds apart were quite deliberate.

"The gap between was quite long enough to realise, if it was a mistake or to be suicide, to put the gun to one side or turn it on itself."

The prosecution described Mrs Salmon's 999 call as "staggeringly cold blooded".

The court heard she told the operator: "I have just shot my husband's mistress".

They say she acted out of "plain anger and revenge".

Mrs Salmon's counsel Patrick Curran QC, said it was not a case of the defence saying "this lady was insane".

Paul Salmon met his wife while both served in the Army

But, he said: "When someone kills in these circumstances, they should not be guilty of murder, they are guilty of manslaughter."

He said psychiatrists had shown that "anger is a symptom of a depressive illness" and was what doctors would expect to see in somebody who was clinically depressed.

The court heard Mrs Salmon came to her senses hours later in the police station when she said: "I've really done it."

Mr Curran said: "If that's not a clear picture of somebody who is suffering an abnormality of mind when they've killed somebody and their responsibility is diminished, how can anyone ask for more?"

Judge Neil Denison told the jury to put aside any sympathy and decide on the basis of the evidence, using common sense, whether the case was one of murder or manslaughter.

He told the jury to think about what Mrs Salmon did and said before and after the killing and about her demeanour.

Later, he said that Mrs Salmon was a woman of previous good character and had had an exemplary discharge from the Army.

He added people often went though a period of "intense unhappiness" when marriages broke up and many felt "justifiable anger" towards the person they considered responsible.

But he added "very rarely" did they kill that person.

Mrs Salmon, of Great Shefford, Berks, admits shooting Ms Stewart, 36, but denies murder.

The trial was adjourned until Friday.