A man accused of murdering his wife called emergency services and told them he woke up to find her ‘cold to the touch’ after she had been ‘drinking heavily’ the night before, a trial heard.
Walter Buchanan, 66, appeared in the dock yesterday charged with killing 37-year-old Darrel Buchanan at their flat in Hamilton on February 18, 2023.
The first day of the trial heard he dialled 999 and told the operator he was unable to wake her after saying: ‘I don’t know if she’s choked or something like that.’
Paramedics gave Mrs Buchanan advanced life support but she was pronounced dead at 7.45am.
Buchanan, who faces a separate charge under the Domestic Abuse Act, was arrested six days later at his sister’s home in Cumbernauld.
Prosecutors claim Buchanan, who is alleged to have had ‘control’ over his wife and isolated her from others, grabbed her by the wrists, restrained her and hit her on the head by means unknown. He is then alleged to have put his hands around her neck and compressed it, as well as covering her nose and mouth. Buchanan denies the charges.
Jurors at the High Court in Glasgow heard Buchanan told the 999 call handler he woke up at the property to find his wife was ‘cold to the touch’.
He was heard to say: ‘She was drinking heavily and she was upset during the night.
‘I don’t know if she choked or something like that. I did mouth to mouth there. I can’t wake her up.’
Paramedic Rebecca McLaughlin told the court Mrs Buchanan had no pulse when she arrived at the scene. She said Buchanan told her he had returned home at 2am and his wife went back and forth to the bathroom.
He also stated his wife had fallen into a plant pot in the bedroom on an earlier occasion. Ms McLaughlin told jurors there was soil on the wall.
Iain McSporran, KC, defending, asked her if Buchanan assisted her as best he could, to which she replied: ‘Yes.’
Ambulance technician Megan Muirhead said Mrs Buchanan had a dark mark on her forehead and neck, with blood on the outside of her right ear.
The trial continues.