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Scottish Daily Record
13 October 1998
(c) 1998 Scottish Daily Record & Sunday Mail Ltd
A young mother who flew into a knife-wielding rage and attacked her lover has blamed the drug Prozac.
Yesterday Lynette Lothian, 21, was placed on probation after a sheriff heard she had changed her medication. Prozac is said to improve your mood but the court was told it has been linked to swings in behaviour. Previously, Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard Lothian was prescribed the drug as her romance with a man twice her age turned sour. A week later, she exploded in a rage because she believed boyfriend Donald Stewart preferred the pub to her and their baby daughter, now aged one.
Mr Stewart twice disarmed petite Lothian of knives she brought from the kitchen then threw her out of the home they shared at Rosewell, Midlothian. But Lothian, now of Milton Street, Edinburgh, managed to get back in and launch a third attack on Mr Stewart, who is in his early 40s.
She was initially accused of attempted murder but the charge was later reduced to assault to severe injury, which Lothian admitted.
Sheriff Nigel Morrison, QC, heard trouble flared after Lothian and Mr Stewart went to their local pub last December and discussed their future. Nigel Beaumont, defending, said Lothian had been taking Prozac for about a week for depression.
Mr Beaumont added: “It may be that a moderate quantity of alcohol was exacerbated by the drug. “In this country there have been a number of incidents of difficult behaviour of people taking the drug.” He said Lothian was now on milder medication and her relationship with Mr Stewart was over.