Andrew Innes

The case of Andrew Innes is one of the most harrowing double homicides in recent Scottish legal history, marked by extreme depravity and calculated concealment. The following is a detailed, factual documentary-style timeline of the events as established by the police investigation and the High Court in Edinburgh.

The Background and Luring

Bennylyn Burke, a 25-year-old mother, lived in Bristol with her two-year-old daughter, Jellica. Andrew Innes, a 52-year-old software engineer, targeted her online.

• February 2021: Innes contacts Bennylyn via a dating website. Exploiting her vulnerability, he offers her a place to stay and lures her and her daughter to travel hundreds of miles from Bristol to his home on Troon Avenue, Dundee.

• 20th February /2021: Bennylyn and Jellica arrive at Innes's property in Dundee. Over the next few days, they are held in a highly controlled environment.

The Murders and Abuse

• Late February 2021: Innes launches a violent assault on Bennylyn Burke, striking her with a hammer and stabbing her. She dies from her injuries at the property.

• Late February 2021: Approximately three days after Bennylyn’s death, Innes smothers two-year-old Jellica because, as he later admitted to police, she was crying and he "couldn't look after a child."

• Late February – 5th March 2021: Following the murders, Innes subjects another young girl present at the property to severe physical restraint, repeated rapes, and sexual abuse. He also sexually abuses Jellica's body after the murder of her mother.

• Late February – Early March 2021: Innes embarks on an organised effort to conceal his crimes. He lifts the floorboards and concrete in his kitchen, digs a pit, buries the bodies of Bennylyn and Jellica under the kitchen floor, and meticulously replaces the flooring to hide the grave.

The Missing Persons Investigation

• 1st March 2021: Relatives in Bristol grow increasingly alarmed by the sudden lack of contact from Bennylyn and officially report her and Jellica missing to Avon and Somerset Police.

• Early March 2021: Police track mobile phone data and financial records, linking Bennylyn’s last known movements to the Dundee area. The investigation is handed over to Police Scotland.

The Discovery and Arrest

• 5th March 2021: Acting on intelligence, two police officers visit Innes’s home in Dundee. During questioning regarding the missing mother and child, Innes confesses, telling officers: "She’s under the kitchen floor." He confirms Jellica is "under the floor with mum."

• 8th March 2021: Innes appears at Dundee Sheriff Court, where he is officially remanded in custody.

• 18th March 2021: Forensic teams and archaeologists complete the painstaking excavation of the kitchen floor, officially recovering the remains of Bennylyn and Jellica.

The Trial and Sentencing

• January 2023: The trial opens at the High Court in Edinburgh. Innes admits to the killings but denies murder, lodging a special defence of diminished responsibility, claiming medication for Crohn's disease had caused him temporary insanity. Forensic psychologists firmly reject this claim.

• 6th February 2023: Following a five-day trial, the jury takes less than two and a half hours to reject his defence. Lord Beckett instructs them to return guilty verdicts based on the overwhelming medical evidence. Innes is found guilty of both murders, rape, sexual abuse of a child, and perverting the course of justice.

• 6th February 2023: Andrew Innes is sentenced to life imprisonment with a mandatory minimum term of 36 years before he can be considered for parole. The judge describes his actions as a crime of "exceptional cruelty and depravity."

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