Mum-of-two accused of murdering partner in Falkirk home

Dionne Christie, 23, sent the message to her partner, Jevin Haig, then 21, during exchange about what they should do for the evening – which was to turn out to be the last of his life.

The High Court in Stirling heard Mr Haig, from Moredun, Edinburgh, had messaged that he was short of money.

When Christie, who lived in Falkirk, suggested this meant he was actually not seeing her that night, Mr Haig suggested they could “go to a Travelodge” as it would be a cheap thing to do.

He added, “But it's dead”, apparently meaning a not very lively venue.

Christie replied: “Do you know what's dead?” When Mr Haig texted back: “What?”, Christie responded: “You.”

Jurors heard that following this the pair went on to joke about one of Christie's Instagram stories, but prosecutor Graeme Jessop KC asked homicide team detective Graham McIlwraith: “In isolation that exchange might infer a threat to kill?”

DC McIlwraith replied: “It could do.”

Mr Jessop: “You know that by four o'clock the following afternoon Jevin Haig was dead and the information you had was there were only two people present when he died – Jevin Haig and Dionne Christie.”

DC McIlwraith replied: “Yes.”

The defence case is that Mr Haig stabbed himself. The jury has heard that Christie told a friend after the incident that a fight that ended with Jevin Haig dead had been over their unborn baby – which he had been trying to cut out of her womb with an eight-inch Bowie knife.

The court heard that DC McIlwraith had arrested and charged mother-of-two Christie at her own mother's home in Polmont, almost a year after Mr Haig's death, as she returned from attending one of her young daughter's school plays.

DC McIlwraith said he had interviewed her after she had spoken to a solicitor, and she had answered “no comment” to the vast majority of the questions.

However, when he asked about the “what's dead – you” exchange she said that was “not what it meant”, and referred him to the context.

She was later arrested, and made no reply to caution and charge.

The court heard that 6ft 2in tall Mr Haig had died from an 8.4 centimetre-deep single stab wound from his own knife to the middle of his chest with “at least a moderate degree of force” which cut through the cartilage of his right seventh rib and part of his breastbone and entered his heart.

Pathologist Professor Ralph Bouhaidar said he found no indication of injuries that would suggest that Mr Haig had been trying to defend himself.

Christie, 23, of Whyteside Rise, Polmont, denies murder.

Earlier, the Crown dropped one of the three charges against her, which had alleged she had been violent towards Mr Haig from the start of their sexual relationship in January 2022.

She further denies assaulting a previous partner, Declan Salmond on various occasions between March 2020 and March 2021 by punching him on the head and body, presenting a knife at him, and threatening him with violence.

The jury heard that Mr Salmond, 28, told police Christie used to hit him until she drew blood, and had once come at him with a kitchen knife.

Mr Salmond, who lived with Christie in her Falkirk flat in 2020 and 2021, said in a statement: “We would argue a lot. Dionne would be violent towards me. I would stand there with my arms behind my back and let her.

“She would hit me until she drew blood, but then she would change, give me a hug, and apologise.

“There was one incident where she came at me with a knife. It was either because I wanted to go out with my pals or I didn't do what she wanted me to do – something minor."

The trial before Lady Poole continues.