A man who made legal history when he was convicted of killing his unborn baby lost his appeal yesterday. In the Appeal Court in Belfast, three judges unanimously dismissed an appeal by Colin McDonald (35), a fast-food shop-owner from Bangor, Co Down.
McDonald had been jailed for 22 years for the crime of child destruction and the attempted murder and rape of his girlfriend, Ms Michelle Kerr (22). She was stabbed 47 times with a kitchen knife and a screwdriver in a flat above McDonald's shop at Quay Street, Bangor, on November 9th, 1997. The next day, her daughter, Naomi, was stillborn.
McDonald's sentence may now be increased to life imprisonment as the Attorney General is to ask the Appeal Court to jail him until it is safe to release him.
Lord Justice McCollum yesterday dismissed the defence of automatism - a lack of intent - which is alleged to have led McDonald, a diabetic, to mindless and unintentional behaviour due to low glucose levels. "The treatment to which Ms Kerr was subjected was of such malevolent cruelty that no one could hope to explain or justify it."