A killer who brutally tortured a Scots mum has been unmasked as she faces life behind bars.
Michelle Ramage, 43, and Ryan Hill, 27, inflicted more than 130 injuries to Susan Turner during the horrific ordeal. Ramage was left furious after discovering that Susan, 41, had been texting her partner Jason Bell.
Susan was subjected to a horrific torture, which included being stripped, choked, stabbed with scissors, disfigured and bludgeoned with various weapons, at Jason’s flat in Ayrshire.
While Ramage originally pleaded not guilty to the attack, she changed her plea to guilty halfway through the trial. Jason, 51, had also been accused of murder, but jurors returned a not proven verdict.
Ramage and Hill – who already had almost 50 previous convictions between them – will be sentenced in March.
The trial how Susan stayed near to Jason at the time. Jason’s brother Alexander gave evidence and told how Susan would visit his sibling two to three times a day.
Prosecutor Chris McKenna asked the 46-year-old if Ramage had been aware of the victim also being in contact with his brother by text. Alexander initially recalled one message. It was said to have been sent by Susan to Jason.
Mr McKenna: “How did Michelle react?”
The witness: “I do not think she liked it. She was not happy. You could see it in her face.”
Jurors heard Alexander told police in a statement that Susan had “constantly” texted his brother.
He added: “Michelle…you could see was getting annoyed. She was becoming jealous – that was obvious.”
Ramage was said to have confronted Susan shortly before the killing and swore at her. Alexander was at a friend’s home in the early hours of March 26 2023 when his brother turned up looking like “nervous wreck”.
Jason reportedly stated “they are going to end up murdering her” or “they are going to end up doing away with her”. Jason eventually went back to his flat – police turned up and found him sitting outside.
Officers had to force entry to the dimly-lit property. Sergeant Craig McLachlan recalled “the very strong smell of blood” in the air and then “a visibly deceased female” with injuries lying on the floor.
Jason was asked who the woman was, but claimed not to know. In his closing speech, Mr McKenna told jurors there was “barely a part of Susan Turner’s body that was not injured“.
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The killing by the pair – both much bigger than Susan – included her being strangled with a cord, her hair chopped and ripped out as well as being hit with mugs, a machete, a bat, golf club, chain and radio.
She was also “scored” with a blade over her body. Mr McKenna: “This was an attack done to demean and disfigure her – an attack to cause pain.”
After the verdict, the court heard Susan had three children aged between nine and 23. The prosecutor said Ramage had 37 previous convictions including a five-year jail-term for abduction and serious assault in 2010.
Hill meantime had 11 convictions with a number also for violence. He was on bail at the time for assault, which he was later locked up for. Jurors deleted from the charge that he had been involved the machete or used the cord to choke Susan.
Lord Mulholland told the pair: “You have been convicted of the brutal murder of a defenceless woman. The Injuries you inflicted on this woman – who weighed seven and a half stone – were catastrophic.
“This was a sustained assault – it was akin to torture. She must have been in agony at the time of her death.”
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