Andrew Innes: Dundee man guilty of double murder of Bennylyn and Jellica Burke jailed for minimum of 36 years

A man who was found guilty of murdering a mother and her young daughter has been sentenced to life in prision with a minimum of 36 years to be served.

Andrew Innes, 52, was convicted of the double murder of Bennylyn Burke, 25, and her two-year-old daughter at the High Court in Edinburgh after a five-day trial. He was also found guilty of sexually abusing the toddler, as well has raping another child at his Dundee home in early 2021.

After he killed both Ms Burke and Jellica, he buried their bodies under the concrete in his kitchen floor at his Troon Avenue address.

Innes had denied all charges during the trial. The jury of eight men and seven women found him guilty on all charges after two and a half hours of deliberation time.

Following his guilty verdict, Judge Lord Beckett sentenced Innes to life imprisonment and said he will serve a minimum sentence of 36 years. The judge said following the sentencing that the “difficult and harrowing” case is one of the worst to have been heard in a Scottish court.

What happened during the trial?

Upon his arrest on 5 March 2021, Innes told officers that Ms Burke had tried to attack him with a sushi knife and acted in self defence. He later admitted that this was incorrect while giving evidence at the trial.

The convicted murderer told the court during the trial that at the time of the murders he was “insane as a result of the steroid” he had been prescribed for his Crohn’s disease. However, Dr Gordon Cowan, a psychiatrist, told the court that he did not believe that Innes was impaired at the time of the murders, adding that his story over his mental health had changed multiple times before he settled on his final version.

Dr Cowan said: “It’s clear he held resentment towards his ex-partners and this lady in front of him, in some way, reminded him of these ladies and he became angry, uncontrollably angry at her.” Innes is said to have killed Ms Burke with a hammer after he became apocalyptically angry” over her resemblance to a former jilted lover of his.

In a victim interview, the girl he was found to have raped said that Jellica had been killed three days later after a game of hide-and-seek in the home. The child also told the interviewer that she couldn’t save either Ms Burke or Jellica because “she didn’t know what was happening”.

What did Bennylyn and Jellica’s family say?

A statement from Bennylyn and Jellica’s family, who had travelled from the Philippines to attend the trial, was released through the Crown Office’s Victim Information and Advice (Via) service. It read: “A big part of our family has been torn from us. We shall never see Bennylyn and Jellica again.

“We shall never know our beloved Jellica or ever see her grow up. We shall be forever haunted by what happened to (Bennylyn) in this far-off place such a long way from us, her family.”

It concluded: “There is nothing that can restore Bennylyn and Jellica to us. But the jury’s guilty verdict for murder provides some comfort to our family and friends and brings justice for Bennylyn and Jellica.”