Original article no longer available
The Daily Record
Jan 8 2009
By Lisa Adams
THE former mistress of wife killer David Lilburn revealed yesterday that police feared he had murdered her too.
Lynn McGuire went on a date with Lilburn just hours before he stabbed his wife Ann 86 times at his luxury home.
After the bloodbath, police found out that Lilburn had been in a relationship with Lynn – and they were worried she could have been another victim.
Mum-of-two Lynn, 44, said: “I’ll never forget that knock on the door from CID.
“Police told me they had been looking for me for a few days. They thought I might have been murdered as well.
“I had a lucky escape.”
Lilburn, an accountant, murdered mum-of-three Ann in Paisley in July 2007.
His cheating had left their 26-year marriage on the rocks and Ann, 43, had told him she wanted a divorce.
On the night of the killing, Lilburn had enjoyed a romantic dinner with Lynn.
He then went home and stabbed Ann with four kitchen knives.
Last September, Lilburn was jailed for life and ordered to serve at least 19 years.
Lynn, a divorcee, is still struggling to pick up the pieces of her life after learning that the man she fell for was a killer.
She met Lilburn through a lonely hearts advert and the pair clicked on their first date in a pub near Lynn’s Glasgow home.
She said: “It was summer and we sat in the beer garden.
“He dressed well and seemed down-to earth. David had such a gentle voice and seemed so interested in me.
“He told me he was separated and going for divorce. He said his ex-wife lived in Aberdeen, was unwell and controlling.
“I had no reason to believe they were lies.
My ex-husband went off with someone else and split up our family, so I know how that feels. I would never have dated a man who was still with his wife.”
Hours after the date, Lilburn called to invite Lynn to the cinema the following evening.
As the relationship developed, he wined and dined her and called her up to four times a day.
Lynn was delighted when Lilburn whisked her off to London to see the hit musical Mamma Mia! and stay in the five-star Le Meridien Piccadilly hotel.
Lynn dared to hope she’d found the man of her dreams and the relationship became sexual.
She added: “He was never anything but nice to me. He had been on medication for depression, which I didn’t know. But he’d stopped taking the medication in May and I was away with him in London in July.
“Anything could have happened when I was away so far from home alone with him.”
Later that month, Lilburn drove Lynn to the Hungry Monk restaurant in Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, for his 45th birthday.
She had bought a new outfit for the occasion and she glowed with happiness as they looked out at the stunning scenery and shared plans for the future.
Lynn said: “I told David I’d always dreamed of swimming with dolphins on a holiday and he said if that’s what I wanted to do, we should do it together.”
BUT two days after the dinner date, Lynn began to worry because she hadn’t heard from Lilburn, despite leaving messages on his phone.
In desperation, she contacted his mum to find out if he’d called her.
She couldn’t believe what she was told.
Lynn added: “She said David had been arrested.
“She said there had been a terrible tragedy. His wife had been murdered.
“At that point, I couldn’t get off the phone quick enough. I said, ‘Sorry to bother you’ and put the phone down.
“Even now, it’s so unbelievable what’s happened.”
When police tracked Lynn down, she was forced to endure eight hours of questioning.
She also had to give fingerprints and provide a DNA sample.
She said: “Police had been going through all the Lynn McGuires in the area because they thought he might have murdered me as well.
“At first, they thought it could be an insurance scam that we’d both been involved in.
It was horrendous. I’ve never been in any bother with police. I’d only ever seen the inside of a police station on the telly.”
Lynn said she was heartbroken when she had to explain to her daughters Yvonne, 19, and Diane, 16, what her boyfriend was caught up in.
But it wasn’t over. While he was in prison on remand, Lilburn wrote love letters to Lynn, pleading with her to stand by him.
She decided the only way to get through to him that the relationship was over was to confront him face to face. Lynn made a secret visit by train to Greenock Prison to see him.
She said: “I don’t know how I did it. I was physically ill before I saw him. I’d never even been in a prison before.
“It took me a few glances to recognise him when he came out. He’d always been so well dressed and carried himself well.
“He was a totally broken man. He was drawn in the face and looked ill.
“He wanted me to wait for him. I was under the impression he thought he was going to get away with it or get a short prison sentence.
“He said he didn’t know what had happened and couldn’t remember anything.
“I didn’t want David anywhere near me or my girls.”
LYNN didn’t see Lilburn again until she was called as a witness at his trial last summer at the High Court in Glasgow.
He claimed insanity, saying a “black shadow” had ordered him to kill Ann.
But judge Ian Peebles described him as a “wholly evil” man who had slain his “totally blameless wife” after she had nursed him through years of mental illness.
Lilburn’s children, David, 26, Paul, 25, and 19-year-old Laura, were in the courtroom to hear him sentenced.
Lynn said: “I felt so sorry for his family. I was too frightened to go over and talk to them.
I didn’t want his kids to think I knew he was still with his wife when I met him, because I didn’t.”
Today Lynn, who works with children with autism and learning difficulties, is trying to piece her life back together.
The relationship with Lilburn only lasted six weeks. But the healing process is painfully slow and it will take a lot longer to get back to normal.
Not surprisingly, Lynn’s trust had been destroyed and she is scared to even think about a new relationship.
She said: “He’d always been a perfect gentleman with me but he left me a wreck. I couldn’t eat or sleep. It’s totally flooredme.”
Just before Christmas, Lynn received another letter from Lilburn, who is now in Shotts jail in Lanarkshire.
Lynn said: “It freaked me out. But like all his other letters, it got ripped up.
“I don’t think David will survive 19 years in prison. Even if he did eventually get out of jail, he’s lost everything anyway.”
Lynn added: “I’ve not come back from this yet.
“Time may be a great healer but it’s not going fast enough for me.
“I’d like to get back to being bubblier, get some of the old me back.
“I’m still traumatised but my daughters have been great. They keep me going and have given me a reason to smile again.”
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‘Wife killer fooled the experts on his sanity’ — (The Daily Record)
Dailyrecord.co.uk
Prosecutor Derek Ogg QC described former accountant Lilburn, who is accused of stabbing his wife Ann to death, as a “calculated” individual who “pulled the wool” over people’s eyes. And he said Lilburn’s claim that a “black shadow” told him to stab 43-year-old Ann was a “convenient excuse”.
Mr Ogg addressed the jury at the murder trial at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday during his closing speech and said the loss of Ann was “a destruction of life”.
He added: “Ann Lilburn’s life was taken in a most brutal and furious manner and with such force by the accused that he penetrated the ribs and skull.
“It was with such completeness that death would happen. That could only be what he intended.”
The advocate depute said the defence case hinged on Lilburn’s mental health at the time of the offence.
Mr Ogg added: “Although it might seem that he was fine, the defence say that he faked his own sanity.
“They say that, in reality, he was desperately unwell and that qualified people got it wrong.
“But the Crown case is more old fashioned. We are looking at a man having an affair who was going to lose it all.
“His wife, who had stood by him through her struggles with ME, had finally had enough and this was the last straw.”
Mr Ogg went on: “You are going to be asked to accept evidence from a man who can pull the wool over the eyes of other people.
“He has manipulated the facts to fool professionals. However, he did not fool us and he stumbled and fell through his prepared case.”
The prosecutor concluded: “He is clever enough, manipulative enough and has the intelligence to put together this latest get out of jail free card.
“However, it stops here in this courtroom. I invite you to convict this man of every last letter of this charge.”
Lilburn, 45, denies murdering his wife by repeatedly striking her on the head, seizing her by the arm and repeatedly striking her on the head and body with knives at their home in Arniston Way, Paisley, in the early hours of July 29 last year.
Yesterday, his QC Andrew Lamb told the jury there was “no doubt” the accused killed his wife and said the only issue was his mental health at the time of the offence.
Mr Lamb said: “The fact of the matter is that, according to David Lilburn, he was persuaded by the ‘black shadow’ to kill his wife.”
The QC told the jury that, if they believed Lilburn’s account of events, they should convict him of the lesser charge of culpable homicide.
Before yesterday’s closing speeches, a psychiatrist told the court that Lilburn’s mental health problems could have affected him on the morning of Ann’s death.
Dr Srikath Nimmigadda – the final witness – said he had met with Lilburn and judged that he satisfied the “criteria” for diminished responsibility.
But he later accepted that, in forming an opinion on Lilburn, he had not consulted the accused’s GP or the psychiatrist who had been treating him.
Prosecutor Mr Ogg said to Dr Nimmigadda: “Your opinion is that he was very likely suffering because he was not taking his medication and that the black shadow told him what to do but the only source is David Lilburn.
“If he is lying to you, to fool a psychiatrist, then that is all he has to say.”
The doctor replied: “I asked him many questions. I was convinced by his answers.”
Judge Ian Peebles QC will complete his charge today before the jury are sent out to consider their verdict.