Woman jailed for killing 97-year-old man in Dundee

A serial criminal who killed a a 97-year-old man after demanding money from him in his Dundee home has been jailed.

Tandy Swinton, 44, was convicted of the culpable homicide of William Lambie, who died five weeks after he was attacked in his Dundee flat in April last year.

Swinton had pushed Mr Lambie, who weighed five stones when he died, causing him to fall to the floor and sustain serious injuries in the fatal attack.

She has been sentenced to six years and nine months in prison and will also be supervised in the community for three years following her release.

Swinton was originally charged with murder, but was convicted of the lesser offence following a four-day trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Following the verdict, the court was told Swinton had a previous conviction for threatening to stab and kill Mr Lambie four years earlier.

She also had more than 20 convictions for offences including theft, shoplifting, assault and robbery.

Judge Lord Harrower said that Swinton was “reckless as to whether harm would be caused” when she assaulted Mr Lambie and had shown no remorse for the crime.

During the trial, the court heard friends of Mr Lambie tell the jury that he was a devout Christian who would quote Shakespeare and was an inspiration to fellow members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Dundee.

The trial was told that Mr Lambie underwent surgery at the city’s Ninewells Hospital following the attack and was transferred to another hospital for rehabilitation, but later went to a nursing home before he died on 26 May last year.

The court heard Swinton was previously jailed for three years for attacking Mr Lambie in 2020, when she told him she had a knife and threatened to kill him, before robbing him of £100.

She was jailed again for 18 months after demanding that another pensioner, then aged 81, go with her to a bank and withdraw £300 for her in 2022.