Prosecutor warns of tough new approach to abusive men

The head of the prosecution service in Scotland has said it is putting "men on notice" if they abuse their partners to the point they take their own lives.

John Logue, Crown agent of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), was speaking following the jailing of Lee Milne, who was convicted for culpable homicide after his wife Kimberly took her own life following a campaign of abuse.

It was the first time in Scots law that culpable homicide had been used for such a case.

Speaking on the BBC's Scotcast, Logue said: "I think what this case does do is put men on notice that we now see this in a different way and we have now established that the law does cover this behaviour."

He added: "They need to understand that if their behaviour makes it foreseeable that what they're doing would cause a woman to take her own life and that happens and we can show the connection that one thing leads to another, then we will take action and you (sic) will find yourself (sic) being prosecuted for culpable homicide."

Kimberly Milne died at the age of 28 after being struck by multiple vehicles on the A90 dual carriageway in Dundee in July 2023.

Police said Kimberly was "clearly terrified" of 40-year-old Milne, and that her death was the result of her taking "a course of action to get away from him".

Milne was also found guilty of a separate charge of domestic abuse at several properties in the city.

Prosecutors said Kimberly had suffered significant violence at his hands in the 18 months before her death.

This included choking, grabbing her by the hair, striking her, shouting and swearing.

Logue admitted that there would have been cases in the past where the Crown Office had not made the link between domestic abuse and suicide, and failed to bring a charge of culpable homicide against perpetrators.

"So I'm afraid in the past probably there were cases where that hasn't been understood or investigated or dealt with in that way," he said.

The prosecutor spoke about how domestic violence cases were dominating courts across Scotland, with cases being heard across the country every day.

Asked why it was so prevalent, he said: "I think I can give you a personal view on that. I think there is something wrong in society with the way that men, young men and boys treat women and girls.

"I suspect that some of that is behaviour that they see and are replicating and have been exposed to as children.

"And I think there's a degree of toleration in society for it. People will treat it as a private argument or it's 'everybody argues' or things like that. Really superficial understandings where it's easier to look the other way and not actually intervene."

He added: "There is something I think broader than the criminal justice system's ability to fix the way women and girls are treated."