A woman jailed for her part in the brutal murder of a north-east woman with learning difficulties is back in Aberdeen – and working under a false name as a hairdresser.
Leigh Mackinnon was locked up for nine years for her role in the attack on 19-year-old Laura Milne at a flat in the city’s Union Street in December 2007.
Last night, Miss Milne’s father, Brian, said he was furious Mackinnon had not served a full sentence and that she had been able to get a job in a barber’s shop less than a mile from where his daughter died.
Mackinnon, then 18, and Debbie Buchan, 19, subjected Miss Milne to a ferocious attack before killer Stuart Jack slashed her throat with a knife.
Jack then mutilated the charity worker’s body and the group hid the body in the kitchen cupboard for a week.
The two girls knew the vulnerable teenager as she worked at the Aberdeen Cyrenians hostel where they lived.
Mr Milne, of Balmedie, said he could not understand why Mackinnon, now 23, had been freed before the end of her sentence.
He said: “I want to know why her sentence hasn’t been finished, she’s been in and out a few times.
“I’m angry that she got off so easily.”
After she was released from jail, Mackinnon began working as a hairdresser, using the first name Sherylleigh, most recently based at Gents Cut and Go in King Street.
Owner Graham Stephen declined to comment last night, but it is understood he is furious at being deceived – especially since he knew Miss Milne.
Staff in the neighbouring Anastasia florists, also owned by Mr Stephen, said he had no idea about Mackinnon’s past.
One employee, who did not wish to be named, said: “He (Mr Stephen) never knew about it, she gave him a fake name, it’s not like she handed in a CV.
“She’s not got a job anymore, I think she knows herself because she’s not turned up.”
Another added: “He knew the victim as well so he was even more angry about it.”
Jack will spend a minimum of 18 years in prison for murdering Miss Milne.
After slitting her throat with a kitchen knife, he tried to cut the head, legs and breast off her corpse.
He was given a six-year concurrent sentence for attempting to defeat the ends of justice by trying to conceal the body.
Buchan and Mackinnon, who admitted attempted murder and attempting to defeat the ends of justice, were locked up for nine years.
