Man stabbed his partner 27 times in fatal Chirnside attack

A court has heard how a man stabbed his partner 27 times during a fatal attack at their home in Chirnside in the Borders.

Corey Dryden, 31, admitted murdering Megan Hughes at the property on the town’s Windram Road in February this year.

The High Court in Edinburgh was told police arrested him soon after the assault and took him into custody.

Dryden had told police officers he could not remember what he had done.

The court also heard how he started weeping during the police interview.

Prosecutor Tracey Brown said he told detectives: “I did really love her you know.”

Ms Brown told the court that officers had Dryden assessed by mental health professionals while he was in detention.

During that assessment he was asked how he would manage if he was released but had replied that was unlikely as he had “hacked” his girlfriend to death.

Dryden pleaded guilty to murdering 31-year-old Ms Hughes by repeatedly striking her on the head and body with a knife.

The charge also contained details of how he repeatedly struck his partner on the head and body with a hammer “or a similar object” during the attack.

The court heard the pair had known each other since childhood but had started living together in July last year.

Ms Hughes had two children from a previous relationship.

The court was told that on the day before Dryden murdered his partner, he sent text messages to friends and loved ones.

Ms Brown said that these messages showed that he was “struggling to manage his emotions within the context of the relationship”.

She said that at about 02:15 on 9 February a neighbour had been woken by loud banging from the couple’s home and heard Ms Hughes repeatedly shout: “Please help me.”

Things quietened down but Dryden phoned police at about 04:30 claiming his partner had stabbed herself after attacking him with a hammer.

Officers who responded found Ms Hughes lying on the floor of an upstairs bedroom with a kitchen knife in her right hand.

The court heard how officers started doing CPR but paramedics later pronounced her dead.

Pathologists carried out a post-mortem on Ms Hughes’s body the day after the fatal attack and the cause of death was recorded as stab wounds to the chest and neck.

Defence advocate Lili Prais KC said she would reserve her mitigation until after the court had obtained a report on her client’s background.

Lord Harrower deferred sentence for a background report and remanded Dryden in custody.