Woman loses Aberdeen attempted murder appeal

A woman jailed for taking part in the attempted murder of a man in Aberdeen while he slept has lost a bid to have her conviction quashed.

Ashley Duncan, 25, was jailed for six years in 2017 after being convicted of the attack on Jordan Jones, along with two other men, in 2016.

Mr Jones, 28, suffered "catastrophic" brain injuries in the attack.

Duncan's legal team had claimed she was provoked. However, judges rejected their claim and refused the appeal.

Duncan's co-accused, Mathew Donaldson and Lee Hutchison, were jailed for 11 years and eight years respectively for their part in the crime.

The trio were convicted at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Lawyers for Duncan argued she was a victim of a miscarriage of justice and went to the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh.

Defence advocate Jonathan Crowe told appeal judges Lord Carloway, Lord Turnbull and Lord Menzies that they should overturn her conviction.

Mr Crowe said the evidence led in the case showed that Ms Duncan was provoked and that Lady Scott should have given legal directions to jurors about this.

The court heard that if jurors had been briefed about this then they may have returned a verdict of guilty to the lesser charge of assault to severe injury under provocation.

However, the appeal judges disagreed with Mr Crowe's submissions.

Lord Carloway said: "We will refuse the appeal. We will issue our reasons why we have refused this appeal in writing later."