LECTURER ADMITS TO KILLING WIFE IN STABBING FRENZY OVER PATERNITY DOUBTS
A college lecturer has admitted killing his wife in "a stabbing frenzy" after wrongly believing he was not the father of their two children.Robert Kerr, 39, inflicted 76 wounds on 39-year-old Xin Xin Liu at their home in Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire.
The Crown accepted his plea to culpable homicide on the grounds of diminished responsibility after it emerged he suffered "an abnormality of the mind".
Kerr will remain at the State Hospital under an interim compulsion order.
At the High Court in Glasgow, judge Lord Boyd imposed the interim order for Kerr to remain at Carstairs and the case was adjourned until November.
The court heard Xin Xin had moved to Scotland from China around 15 years ago to study law at Aberdeen University.
It was there she met Kerr, who was completing a computer course.
They married in 2003.
Kerr was a lecturer at West College Scotland, while Xin Xin was training to be a translator.
They were described as a "quiet and private couple" with family not aware of any problems.
In April this year, Kerr had contacted his GP complaining of stress related to "work and personal issues" and spoke about "paranoid feelings".
Four days before the attack, he told a nurse he was feeling "chirpier".
On April 26, Kerr attacked Xin Xin while their two sons slept upstairs.
Just before midnight, he dialled 999, admitting: "I have just killed my wife.
I murdered her in a stabbing frenzy." Police found Xin Xin on the kitchen floor with a knife still in her body.
Kerr then told officers, "I found out tonight they were not mine." This was after a paternity test confirmed he was the biological father of the children, despite suspicions he had a friend as the father.
Blood-stained items were discovered at their house, including a milk carton.
Kerr admitted that he had made himself a hot drink after the incident.
Xin Xin suffered 76 wounds, as revealed by a post-mortem.
Kerr has been receiving treatment at Carstairs and a doctor stated his "ability to control his conduct" was "substantially impaired by reason of abnormality of mind", specifically diagnosed as a "delusional disorder" involving his beliefs about the paternity of his children.
