Man admits killing mother and daughter and burying bodies under floor

A man has admitted killing a woman and her two-year-old daughter and burying their bodies under the floor of his home in Dundee.

But Andrew Innes, 52, denies murdering Bennylyn and Jellica Burke, claiming diminished responsibility.

Innes is now standing trial accused of murdering 25-year-old Bennylyn and her daughter in February or March 2021.

He is also accused of sexually assaulting Jellica Burke and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

Innes faces a further charge of raping another child. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

A joint minute of agreed evidence between prosecutors and Innes’ defence team was read to a jury at the start of the trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

This is evidence which has been agreed between prosecutors and Innes’s legal team as being uncontroversial.

Junior prosecution counsel Frankie Morgan said Innes had caused Bennylyn’s death by stabbing her with a knife and repeatedly hitting her on the head with the handle of the knife and a hammer. Jellica died of asphyxiation.

Mr Morgan said Innes then put their bodies in rubble bags and concealed them in concrete beneath the kitchen floor of his home.

Bennylyn, who was originally from the Philipinnes, had met Innes online before travelling with him from Bristol to his home in Dundee in February 2021.

The following month the bodies of Bennylyn and Jellica were found hidden under his kitchen floor.