Christopher Shone jailed for murdering Mary Craig in Lochwinnoch
A man who murdered his partner following an argument about old home videos, which showed her late husband, has been jailed for life.
Christopher Shone, 55, stabbed 43-year-old Mary Craig, at their home in Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, on 26 May.
A jury at the High Court in Glasgow rejected his claim that Ms Craig died while trying to stop him self-harming.
Judge Johanna Johnston told Shone he had committed a "brutal act" and must serve a minimum of 16 years in prison.
The temporary judge said: "You were convicted of murdering Mary Craig. The jury rejected your defence of accident.
"There had been an argument and Ms Craig said she was fed up with your behaviour. Later that day you stabbed her through the heart.
"That brutal act robbed her of her life, robbed her children of their mother and tore apart the family. Her family have all been devastated by your crime. For her children their lives will never be the same again."
As Shone was led away to begin his sentence members of Ms Craig's family shouted: "Murderer and rot in hell".
During Shone's trial, the jury heard how the couple had been together for eight years in a relationship that was described as "up and down".
Shone had gone with Ms Craig to her sister's home on the morning of 26 May and it was there that an old home video was put on which showed the victim with her ex-husband.
Shone claimed he soon "went into a low" as it had been difficult "seeing them together".
The couple later argued when Ms Craig returned home from her karate class.
A neighbour, Amanda Brown, told the jury how she spoke to Ms Craig that night.
The witness recalled: "She told me that he was drunk - she said she could not be bothered with it any more and was sick of it. I thought she was going to leave him... separate."
Instead Ms Craig was killed later that night when Shone plunged a kitchen knife into her chest. She died from a single stab wound to her heart.
He then put the murder weapon back into a knife block and sought no assistance for his dying partner.
It was Ms Craig's 13-year-old son who dialled 999.
The jury was played the emergency call where the distressed teenager repeatedly asks for help for his mother.
Shone was detained at his house and later apparently broke down when police told him Ms Craig had died.
Giving evidence, he claimed the death was a tragic accident after Ms Craig tried to wrestle a knife from him to stop him self harming.
Asked what happened, Shone wept: "Her arm slipped off mine. My arm came down... it went into her. I just thought that it was a small cut."
But prosecutor Steven Borthwick described Shone's claims as a "pack of lies" and that he had stabbed Ms Craig "right to the hilt" of the knife.