The jury had been asked to decide whether Mrs Galbraith was a cold-blooded murderer or a victim of sexual torture at the hands of a sadist.

It was in a picturesque setting on the banks of Loch Fyne in Argyll where the Galbraiths chose to set up home, moving first to the tourist town of Inveraray.

Loch Fyne: A picturesque area

This beautiful part of Scotland gave them a fresh start from their life in the south of England and to the community which welcomed them, they seemed like any ordinary couple.

Ian Galbraith quickly established himself as a trusted and respected police officer in the town, obvious to locals by his 6ft 6ins stature.

To many people, he seemed like a decent man.

Donald Clark, owner of the George Hotel in the town, never recognised the constable from the way he was described during the three-week trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

"There was never any talk in the town of him having lady friends or of straying off the straight and narrow," he said.

"He just seemed someone who liked the outdoor life and shooting. He wasn't a drinker and he seemed a family man.

"So the description of him being with Nazi memorabilia and lady friends, wasn't the man I knew," Mr Clark added.

Petite blonde

They lived in a police house in the town for nearly two years but few people knew Kim Galbraith and could barely describe the petite blonde.

She was rarely seen around town and to many locals, seemed shy and withdrawn.

On the few occasions they were seen together in public they appeared happy, but the court heard a different picture of their life.

At one point the jury was shown an explicit hard porn video which belonged to Mr Galbraith.

Kim Galbraith: "Shy and withdrawn"

The video was screened as part of Kim Galbraith's defence that her husband was a sadistic sexual torturer who had abused her for years.

Dr Mairead Tagg, an expert in abuse, spent two hours talking to Kim Galbraith when she was in Cornton Vale prison.

Dr Tagg was convinced that behind closed doors Ian Galbraith had a controlling and sadistic grip on his wife's life.

She said: "She described a life of profound sexual degradation and humiliation at the hands of her husband - abuse which left her demoralised, with a disintegrating sense of self, feeling there was no escape possible."

In August last year the couple and their baby daughter Lauren moved to the village of Furnace, a few miles along the coast.

They rented a cottage from the local laird in an idyllic location overlooking Loch Fyne.

It was here that Ian Galbraith was able to indulge in his passion for guns, often spending more time in the hills shooting than he did with his family.

Years of 'abuse'

It was also here that Kim Galbraith claimed the abuse she had endured for years became worse.

She told the court she was regularly made to perform unnatural sexual acts, including sex with prostitutes, and was abused in a dog kennel in the garden.

She said Ian Galbraith made her watch hardcore pornography and then forced her to act out scenes.

Dr Tagg said: "The reason I believed Kim Galbraith was that her body language and the way she was telling her story were all absolutely consistent with every other abused women I've ever worked with.

The Galbraiths lived near picturesque Loch Fyne

"So either she's a consummate actress and liar and she's read every book on domestic abuse going, including books on psychological trauma, or she's telling the truth."

The court heard by last November, Kim Galbraith was at the end of her tether and began plotting to harm her husband in a bid to make him stop hurting her.

Using a stanley knife, she cut a brake pipe in his car to frighten him, after being told he was having an affair.

She later learned it was not true, but she was becoming increasingly desperate.

Despite showing little interest in her husband's hobby, one afternoon in January she asked him to show her how to use a gun.

That same night as she lay in bed beside her sleeping husband, she took his rifle and shot him in the head.

She later dialled 999 and when police and fire officers arrived, she told them two masked intruders had burst into the cottage, shot her husband and raped her, before setting the house on fire.

The prosecution described the tales she told to cover up the killing as a "tissue of lies."