Carole Jones reports on the marriage that turned to murder

A jury at the High Court in Glasgow convicted Kim Galbraith, 30, of cold-bloodedly shooting Ian Galbraith in the head as he slept at their home on the west coast of Scotland.

Plans are now being made for a campaign group to be formed to win her freedom.

She stood, head bowed and weeping, as the judge Lord Osborne said: "Parliament has prescribed that the only sentence I can impose in the circumstances now considering the verdict of the jury is one of life imprisonment."

The Galbraiths' cottage

As Galbraith was led down from the dock her distraught and sobbing mother called out to her daughter: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Before sending out the jury of 11 men and four women, Lord Osborne said they had to decide whether Ian Galbraith's death was murder or culpable homicide.

"There is no issue about an acquittal here," he said.

"In the circumstances of this case the issue is whether the Crown has satisfied you in all the circumstances that murder is the appropriate verdict, or whether in the circumstances, culpable homicide is the appropriate verdict."

The court heard Galbraith suffered years of degradation

Galbraith pleaded not guilty to murdering her 6ft 6ins husband by shooting him in the head with a rifle at their home in Furnace, Argyll, in January.

She told the court she acted in what she saw as the only way out of years of systematic sexual abuse which she said she endured at the hands of her husband.

The three-week trial heard that he forced her to have sex in a dog kennel and ordered her to perform other degrading acts.

The Crown argued that the killing was planned and premeditated.

But the defence sought a verdict of guilty of culpable homicide on the ground of diminished responsibility.

'No justice'

Galbraith's family said little after the trial, but her father, Sidney Scarsbrook, commented: "Has justice been done? No."

Dr Mairead Tagg, a psychologist and women's abuse researcher, who gave evidence on Galbraith's behalf during the trial, pledged to fight to free Galbraith through a newly-formed Justice for Kim campaign.

"If this is the law then it is not justice. What Kim suffered was a brutal sadistic abusive partner who drove her to the edge and beyond.

"When women break and end up killing an abusive partner they are given a life sentence. How is that justice and how can abused women be protected? Where is the encouragement to come forward?

"The family are absolutely devastated - they are a lovely family. Kim is not a violent woman, she has no history of aggression, violence or anything like that. What is the motive for her killing if it isn't what she said it was?"

Group dismayed

Scottish Women's Aid, which campaigns on behalf of abused women, greeted the conviction with dismay.

A spokeswoman said: "We are very disappointed but we are pleased that it was a majority verdict in that some of the jury recognised the reality of domestic abuse - physical, sexual and mental - that Kim Galbraith had been in.

"Domestic abuse is about having control taken away from you. Kim Galbraith could not see a way to get free of this abuse.