Killer facing prison term

Derek Fernandez, from Chippenham, said this week that he sees his three-year-old daughter Kira every fortnight.

He said all he wanted now was what would be best for her. Jones was found guilty of the manslaughter of her lover David MacKinnon by a jury at Bristol Crown Court last Thursday.

She was released on bail until sentencing on May 16. But the judge warned her that she would face a prison sentence.

This week Mr MacKinnon's children and friends paid tribute to the man who they remembered as a wonderful father and great mate. Mr MacKinnon's son Matthew and daughter Kate said that with the ending of the trial, they could finally close a traumatic chapter in their lives, after 11 months of anguish.

"Until now we haven't been able to put him to rest properly," said Ms MacKinnon.

Killer's conviction helps family to finally put caring dad to rest

DAVID MacKinnon's children will finally be able to put a headstone on their father's grave now that a jury has returned a guilty verdict on his killer.

Speaking just hours after a jury at Bristol Crown Court convicted his girlfriend Jane Jones of manslaughter, Mr MacKinnon's son Matthew and daughter Kate said they felt they could finally close a traumatic chapter in their lives, after 11 months of anguish and anxiety.

"Until now we haven't been able to put him to rest properly," said Ms MacKinnon, 24, a former insurance broker from Calne, who is seven months pregnant.

"Time does heal, but there are still things that jog your memories. It will never be over, but now it feels like a chapter has finished."

It was not until the jury delivered its unanimous verdict at the end of the eight-day trial that the family finally felt able to ring a stonemason to order a headstone for his grave.

Ms MacKinnon said that time had stopped for the family during the trial that dominated their lives and left them emotionally drained. "You forget all sense of time and day," she said.

The hardest thing for the brother and sister, described by family members as a credit to their father, to come to terms with is that their children will grow up without their grandfather.

Ms MacKinnon is due to give birth to her first child in July, while 27-year-old Mr MacKinnon, a self-employed Calne builder, has a one-year-old daughter, Sophie, whom his father met only once before his death last May.

Both children will be taken to visit their grandfather's grave and told what kind of man he was.

The circumstances of his death will be explained to them when they are old enough to understand the tragedy.

"It's so sad that he won't be around to see his grandchildren grow up, he would have made a fantastic granddad," said Ms MacKinnon.

She added that they felt sympathy for Jones's two children, Stephen, seven, and three-year-old Kira, who had loved Mr MacKinnon and been deprived of him, too.

Jones, who had been involved in a relationship with 49-year-old motor mechanic Mr MacKinnon for about three years, and shared a home with him at Wood Lane, Chippenham, had claimed she killed him with a single stab wound to the chest in self defence.

She was cleared by the jury of his murder, and was found guilty of manslaughter but not by reason of provocation.

Mr MacKinnon's children said they felt the verdict was fair, although they will now have to wait three weeks before 38-year-old Jones is sentenced.

"I don't mind it taking a long time if it's being done properly and she gets the sentence she deserves," said Ms Mackinnon.

They say that because the jury decided Mr MacKinnon did nothing to provoke the attack, their father's character has been vindicated.

They had felt throughout the trial that nothing had been said about the good man their father was and that this had been distressing both for them and for their 87-year-old grandfather, Fred, who had followed reports of proceedings in court by listening to tapes of the Gazette.

"He was worried that it wasn't a true representation of his character and that people might think badly of him," said Mrs MacKinnon.

The family was ordered out of the courtroom at the end of the trial for applauding following last Thursday's manslaughter verdict, but Mr Mac-Kinnon explained that this was simply a release of emotion.

"After 11 months of anxiety, we just felt a big relief," he said.

"It certainly wasn't entertainment."

He described his father as a caring and gentle man and a very approachable dad.

"We knew that if we ever needed anything we could just go and see him," he said.

Mr MacKinnon senior was born in Swindon, a twin to sister Diane, and grew up in Calne, living in Curzon Street the same street as the cemetery where he is now buried.

He went to Guthrie Infants' School and Fynamore Secondary School and as a boy enjoyed running, a hobby he kept up in adulthood, running the London Marathon. He also enjoyed cycling and motor racing.

He worked for 35 years at Zebedee and Powney, in Oxford Road, Calne, as a garage mechanic, but he also helped his family and friends keep their cars in good order.

In 1974 he married Libby Romaine at Derry Hill Church and the couple remained good friends even after their divorce in the early 1980s.

Miss MacKinnon has fond memories of childhood trips to the coast at Weymouth, and more recently of meeting her dad for a drink on a Sunday afternoon or going to his flat to cook him dinner.

She remembers him as a laid back man with a cheeky grin and a sweet tooth.

"He used to fix my car for me in his spare time and I would pay him with jelly babies and wine gums," she said.

Mum is given three weeks to prepare children for parting

BARMAID Jane Jones will be given time to help her children prepare for the shock of seeing her jailed.

Jones, 38, who has a seven-year-old son Stephen, and daughter Kira, three, was released on bail for three weeks on the condition that she co-operates with a pre-sentence report, following a plea from defence barrister Neil Ford.

"She wishes to have the time to prepare her two children for what is to come," he said.

The family of mechanic David MacKinnon were ordered out of court after they applauded as his killer was found guilty of inflicting the single fatal stab wound last May.

Last Thursday, a jury at Bristol Crown Court found Jones guilty of manslaughter in a unanimous verdict, which was followed by spontaneous clapping from her victim's family.

"This is not a place for public entertainment," said Judge Thomas Crowther, before telling them to leave the courtroom.

Sentencing was adjourned until May 16, for the preparation of the report, but Judge Crowther told Jones that her punishment would inevitably be a term of imprisonment.

Mr MacKinnon was killed with a kitchen knife by a single, 12cm wound to the chest in the early hours of May 28 last year at the house he shared with Jones in Wood Lane, Chippenham.

Earlier in the trial Jones told the jury she did not want Mr MacKinnon to die. But the jury had heard they had a stormy relationship which had included violence in the past.

Jones, who had pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder on the grounds of self defence, and Mr MacKinnon had spent the evening of May 27 having a drink with friends in Chippenham. She said that, before going out, she and Mr MacKinnon had said they loved each other.

"We went home around midnight. I had had enough to drink and I didn't want to suffer a hangover at work the next day. I said: 'Dave, I want to go'," Jones told the jury.

Jones claimed that when they returned home, Mr MacKinnon went into the living room to watch television while she made them both a hot drink. She then says she called her partner into the kitchen to drink his. "I didn't want anything to ruin the new sofas in the lounge," she said.

"Eventually he came through and he wasn't very happy because he couldn't watch television. He said he was unhappy and that I was a miserable bitch.

"I said 'well if you're not happy with me, then go'. I opened the kitchen door to see if he wanted to go but he would not go and the argument carried on. I said I was going to call the police and picked the phone up.

"When he had walked from the living room to the kitchen, I don't know how he did it, but he caught me in the face."

When asked if she had shouted 'I'm going to f***ing kill you. You're dead', Jones replied: "I can't remember saying anything. I didn't want him dead. He came back towards me and I lifted the knife up. I can't remember how I was holding it. He lunged himself, he caught the knife."

She added: "He fell on the knife. It had gone in him. It just all happened so quickly."

Defence barrister Neil Ford asked Jones if she had any intention of harming Mr MacKinnon and she replied no. Seconds later she added: "If it cut his skin that was probably all I wanted to do."

When Mr Ford asked Jones how she felt when she realised her partner was dead, Jones replied: "I was gutted. I still am. I miss him a lot and so do the children."

The court was told told tests revealed that at the time of his death, Mr MacKinnon had 138mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in his system, while at 4am on May 28, Jones had 155mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood. The legal limit for driving is 80mg.

Earlier in the trial the jury heard from neighbours who said they often heard the couple arguing. On the night of the stabbing, next door neighbour Denise Brown said she heard Jones screaming: "I'm going to kill you. You're dead."

Jones, who had been on bail and living in Cheltenham with her two young children throughout the trial, claimed Mr MacKinnon was attacking her, and pleaded not guilty to murder on grounds of self-defence.

Mrs Brown's 21-year-old daughter Sarah Witts said she was woken by a couple shouting and banging. She told the court: ''She said 'I'm going to f***ing kill you, I f***ing will.'

"This was about five minutes after I heard the shouting start. Then I heard something else, it sounded like 'go on then' but I am not quite sure. It was a male voice, I presumed it was Dave.

"After a bit of time I heard someone crying and I heard her saying 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean it'.''

Brian Tate, who was one of the group of friends who went out drinking with the couple hours before the killing, told the court: "We often went out drinking together and Jane was fine. She got on well with everyone. I think Jane wanted to leave the pub but I don't know why. I didn't notice any difference of opinion between them about leaving."

Another friend, Richard Brooks, from Corsham, had seen the couple three weeks before the tragedy and said he noticed nothing unusual.

"They were just like any ordinary couple. From time to time they argued like all couples do, but I never saw Jane show Dave any physical aggression or him to her."

An acquaintance of the couple, Timothy Rooney, gave the couple a lift home on the night of the stabbing when they were unable to get a taxi.

"Dave told me he wanted to get Jane home because he thought she'd had too much to drink. We were having a laugh and they were both joking when they got out of the car."

Friends pay tribute to a great guy

FRIENDS of David MacKinnon this week described him as a caring man who would do anything to help anyone.

Will Burford, 57, of Chippenham, who with mates Brian Tate and Richard Brooks formed a foursome that met regularly for a drink on Friday evenings, said: "He was just a great guy. The sort of person who would always do you a favour if he could."

Mr Burford was on holiday when Mr MacKinnon was killed and was shocked to hear of his death on his return.

"I just couldn't believe it," he said.

"I had known him for about 15 years after meeting him in a pub and we stayed really good friends.

"The four of us used to meet up regularly on a Friday evening and he was just a good mate and always good company. It is unbelievable that something like this happened to him.

"I really miss him a lot and still think about him."

Mr Brooks, 57, of Corsham, had known Mr MacKinnon for ten years and considered him to be his best friend.

The pair had met one night in the pub and hit it off immediately. They would regularly go out, and Mr Brooks, an electrician's mate, often stayed with Mr MacKinnon and Jones.

Mr Brooks, who gave evidence at the trial, described Mr MacKinnon this week as simply 'a really nice bloke'.

He was shocked by the killing.

"She (Jones) was a fiery sort of woman, but I don't think anybody saw that coming," he said.

Mr Brooks says his sympathies are also with Jones' two children, Stephen, seven, and Kira, three. "Her kids thought the world of Dave, they are brilliant kids," he said.

DS Mark Power, who conducted the police investigation, said he was pleased with the verdict and the way that it reflected Mr MacKinnon's character.

"The most important thing was David MacKinnon and how he came out of it, and the jury found he did not provoke her," said DS Power. "All the evidence we collected showed him to be a caring man who never argued."

He added that the police had carried out a short but very thorough investigation into the case, speaking to everyone who knew Jones and Mr MacKinnon.

DS Power said he felt the verdict had been fair.