A landmark ruling in Scottish legal history has seen a domestic abuser sentenced to eight years in prison after being held criminally responsible for his wife’s death — even though she took her own life.
Lee Milne, 40, was convicted of culpable homicide following the death of his wife, Kimberly, who jumped from a bridge over the A90 motorway in Dundee in July 2023 and was struck by multiple vehicles. She was 28 years old. The case marks the first prosecution of its kind in Scotland, with the jury determining that Milne’s sustained pattern of abuse directly drove Kimberly to that fatal moment.
Judge Lady Drummond, sentencing Milne at the conclusion of the trial, did not mince her words: “Following your actions, Kimberly Milne reached a point of despair such that she climbed over the barrier of a road bridge and fell to her death.” She said she had read victim impact statements from Kimberly’s family, who described her as a “one-in-a-million” person and a much-loved daughter, sister and aunt. “Nothing I can say or do today will bring her back and ease their grief,” the judge added.
The couple had met in late 2021 and married in September 2022, but prosecutors told the court that the abuse began almost from the start of their relationship and did not stop until the day Kimberly died. Over roughly 18 months, she endured choking, being dragged by the hair, physical strikes to the head, and relentless shouting and verbal intimidation. Milne was also convicted on a separate charge of domestic abuse across several properties in Dundee.
In her own words to police prior to her death, Kimberly recounted one early incident in which Milne went through her phone and found messages from men she had known before they were together. “He got angry and started to shout and swear at me,” she told officers. Another assault followed months later when he yanked her to the ground by her hair, only to apologise afterward, claiming he was “not that type of guy.” In late 2022, after Kimberly discovered he had allegedly been cheating on her, he struck her on the head with enough force to render her briefly unconscious.
On the night of her death, witnesses observed the couple in a heated altercation near the Kingsway Retail Park in Dundee. One witness, who had first spotted them apparently arguing, encountered them again outside a flooring store and described Milne “trapping” Kimberly against a wall. Asked about Kimberly’s demeanour, the witness told the court: “Cowering, scared. She did not really do much. There was not much she could do.” CCTV footage shown during the trial reinforced that account, capturing Kimberly cowering as Milne shouted at her, hiding behind a wall, and trailing behind him as he led the way.
The following morning, Milne appeared at the door of Kimberly’s mother, Lynne Bruce, 54. A statement from Ms. Bruce, read to the court, described him saying her daughter had gone, initially claiming she had “pulled the steering wheel and crashed the car” before admitting she had gone to the bridge. “He tried to grab her hands and she looked up at him, shook her head before jumping off,” the statement read.
Police described Kimberly as “clearly terrified” of her husband and concluded her death was the result of her taking “a course of action to get away from him.” Chief Inspector Craig Kelly, who led the investigation, said he was relieved Milne was now “behind bars, where he should be.” He described Milne as “a violent bully who demonstrated emotional and physical violence towards Kimberly and coercive control,” adding that he “never fully accepted accountability for his actions and tried to attribute blame to Kimberly’s vulnerabilities.”
In sentencing, Lady Drummond also noted that Milne had been placed on the sex offenders’ register following his 2024 conviction for sexually assaulting two young boys — information revealed to the court after the verdict. He will serve three additional years of community supervision upon his release.
Scotland’s Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) described the case as a landmark. Legal director Laura Buchan said the prosecution had sought to answer a profound and complex question: “Can a partner be held criminally responsible for the death of a victim who has taken their own life following a course of domestic abuse?” The answer, the jury confirmed, is yes. “Lee Milne physically and psychologically abused Kimberly and our evidence showed that this abuse was a significant contributing factor in her death,” Buchan said. “He deliberately and ruthlessly exploited Kimberly’s vulnerabilities which makes him culpable for her decision to end her own life.”
The verdict brings Scotland into step with a small but growing body of legal precedent elsewhere in the UK. In 2017, Nicholas Allen was jailed for 10 years in Stafford — in what was then thought to be the first such manslaughter case — after his ex-girlfriend died as a “direct result” of his controlling behaviour. A year later, Steven Gane of Upminster was imprisoned for driving his partner to suicide through domestic abuse, following an inquest that found him responsible for her unlawful killing. Milne’s case now stands as a defining moment for Scottish law, establishing that coercive and violent behaviour which strips a victim of all hope can constitute criminal culpability for their death — regardless of who delivers the final act.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah