"Her Premonition Came True: She Predicted Her Death in a Pool of Blood"

In 1998, a devastating tragedy struck the community of Glasgow, Scotland, on Abby Hill Street, leaving its residents grief-stricken. The victim was Marilyn McKenna, a 37-year-old single mother of three who worked hard to provide for her family.

She believed she had found her soulmate in Stuart Drury, a 35-year-old man who showered her with gifts and affection at the start of their relationship. Marilyn confided in her sister Aileen about how happy Drury made her feel. He moved in with her soon after, and initially, he helped with household chores and displayed romantic gestures. However, their seemingly perfect romance quickly turned into a nightmare within a few weeks.

Drury's true nature emerged when he began exhibiting signs of resentment and envy towards Marilyn. He would constantly question her about her whereabouts and people she may have spoken to if she went out without him, making her feel like a prisoner in her own home.

As their relationship reached the six-month mark, Marilyn realized that the situation was deteriorating and mustered the courage to ask Drury to move out. However, this demand did not sit well with Drury, and he reacted violently, hitting Marilyn in the face and breaking her nose.

Despite Marilyn's brave decision to press charges, Drury only received a £400 fine, which was not an adequate deterrent. Unfazed by his supposed punishment, Drury began to regularly stalk Marilyn.

In November 1997, Drury showed up at Marilyn's workplace - a chip shop - with a sharp knife in his possession. Upon seeing Marilyn, he drew the blade over his throat, causing it to bleed, just as he had threatened to do if she refused to take him back.

Marilyn was terrified by Drury's actions and did not know how to react. She tried to hide from him by locking herself in the shop's bathroom, but Drury chased after her, yelling and attempting to break down the door. Despite several employees being aware of the situation, they were hesitant to intervene due to Drury's possession of a knife and the potential danger it posed.

The employees eventually called the police, who arrived and escorted Drury out of the chip shop. He was charged with breaching the peace. However, Drury continued to justify his violent behavior towards Marilyn, claiming that it was a result of his intense love for her.

Marilyn was understandably frightened by Drury's actions and feared for her safety, especially after her shifts at work. She worried that Drury might follow her home and attack her again, given his previous display of violence.

To ensure her safety, a male coworker would often drive Marilyn home after her shifts at the chip shop. However, Drury became increasingly paranoid and believed that the two were having an affair. He would leave hateful messages for Marilyn, accusing her of being unfaithful.

Drury's obsession with Marilyn escalated to the point where he began to follow her everywhere she went. He would be present when she dropped her children off at school or the nursery, and he would even be waiting for her when she returned home from work.

Despite Marilyn's repeated reports of Drury's threatening behavior to the police, they failed to take sufficient action. As a result, the toll of terror took a terrible hold on Marilyn, causing her to withdraw and shrink away from her loved ones.

Feeling exhausted and hopeless, Marilyn felt she had no other choice but to take matters into her own hands. She grew increasingly worried about the safety of her parents and children, as Drury's reign of terror showed no signs of stopping. In a desperate attempt to protect her loved ones, Marilyn made the difficult decision to go back to Drury, despite her previous efforts to break away from him.

Marilyn's decision to go back to Drury did not result in a positive change in his behavior. Instead, the situation became even worse over time, making it clear that it was not the bright new beginning Marilyn had hoped for.

Drury's controlling behavior continued, and he even forbade Marilyn from spending time with her sister Aileen, causing a rift in their once-close relationship. One night, Aileen received a call from Marilyn's son Ryan, who was clearly shaken by Drury's erratic behavior. Ryan begged his aunt to come to the house and help.

When Aileen and her husband arrived at the house, they found Marilyn and the children standing on the street in their pajamas, expelled from their own home by a fearful Drury. The situation had become so extreme that even Marilyn's own family was now at risk.

Aileen and her spouse offered Marilyn and her children a place to stay, but Marilyn declined the offer. Instead, she chose to explore a more official option with the hope of receiving the necessary support. Marilyn decided to take her children to a shelter specifically designed for women who have faced domestic violence. She believed that by residing in a facility with professionals experienced in dealing with such situations, she could receive the help she urgently required.

The whereabouts and contact details of the safe house were confidential. However, when Drury called her one night and threatened her by saying, "You won't ever get away from me," she realized that the safe house was not as secure as she had hoped. As soon as Drury discovered that she was taking refuge in the sanctuary, she had to escape. Unfortunately, she had no other place to go.

With no other options left, Marilyn made the difficult decision to return to her own house. Despite repeatedly reporting Drury to the police, their orders prohibiting him from contacting her were ineffective as he simply ignored them. As a last resort, Marilyn sought help from a lawyer who filed a temporary restraining order on her behalf. However, under Scottish law, the order was deemed null and void since Marilyn and Drury were not married or cohabiting. This meant that the legal process to protect her could drag on for months.

Drury was aware of the limitations of the law and continued to mentally torment Marilyn. In addition to physically harming her, he derived pleasure from mentally torturing her. Despite a court order mandating that he stay away from Marilyn, Drury threatened to murder her and throw acid in her face. He even broke into her home, destroying her clothes, and defiled her front door with dog feces.

On September 2, 1998, Marilyn reached out to her sister Aileen and shared her ominous premonition about Drury's next move. She warned that the next time they saw her, she would be lying dead in a pool of blood. Sadly, her prediction came true just two days later. On September 4, Marilyn and Aileen went out to a pub to have a drink and escape from the horrors that Marilyn had endured.

As the night progressed, Marilyn caught the eye of a handsome man who approached her. They hit it off immediately, and Aileen was relieved to see her sister finally having some fun. Aileen left the pub, leaving Marilyn alone with the man, who Marilyn invited back to her home. For a brief moment, Marilyn felt safe and protected in the embrace of her new companion, and perhaps even believed that Drury would not approach her while she was with someone else.

However, little did they know that Drury was attempting to force his way into the house using tools he had packed in his sports bag. The insanity of Drury was momentarily forgotten, as Marilyn's thoughts turned elsewhere, and they settled in for the night with no idea of the danger that lurked outside.

Marilyn and the man she had invited to her home heard Drury breaking in and quickly fled the house, running onto the street. Drury pursued them closely, wielding a claw hammer in his hand. The man ran in one direction, while Drury chased Marilyn in the opposite direction. Eventually, Drury caught up to Marilyn and launched a violent attack on her, mercilessly striking her with the hammer at least ten times in a frenzied assault. The blows shattered her jaw and left her lifeless on the pavement in a pool of blood, just as Marilyn had ominously predicted.

Drury's attack was over within a few minutes, and he fled the scene, leaving behind a horrific display of brutality.

When the paramedics arrived, they were met with a gruesome sight - Marilyn's jugular was slashed, her jaw ripped away from her face, and her skull fractured. Despite the severity of her injuries, Marilyn bravely fought for her life and managed to make it to the hospital where her family gathered by her side. Sadly, she eventually succumbed to her wounds.

Drury, the culprit, was swiftly apprehended by the police. In fact, they didn't have to work very hard to find him since Marilyn's mother quickly provided them with information on his whereabouts. Within hours, Drury was captured at his sister's house, with incriminating evidence - Marilyn's blood - all over his clothing.

During the high court trial in Glasgow in February 1999, the jurors were presented with disturbing evidence, including a cruel voicemail left by Drury for Marilyn and a graphic image of her shattered jaw and teeth lying on the pavement.

The pathologist who conducted Marilyn's postmortem examination testified in court, stating that her injuries were among the worst she had ever seen in her hundreds of examinations of homicide victims.

Despite overwhelming evidence against him, Drury took to the witness stand to refute the murder charge, giving a well-rehearsed testimony where he claimed that he killed Marilyn in a fit of jealous rage after discovering that she was spending the night with another man while they were still together. However, this was later proven to be a lie.

Despite overwhelming evidence against him, Drury argued that his intense love for Marilyn made him react with jealousy when he discovered her supposed infidelity, which he believed was a sign of his devotion to her. However, he did not dispute the details of Marilyn's death. The question before the jury was whether he was guilty of murder or culpable homicide.

The defense contended that according to the law, the jury should consider culpable homicide instead of murder because Drury had not intended to kill Marilyn and had only attacked her in response to her alleged infidelity. This defense would not have been valid in England and Wales, but Drury's legal team exploited the legal differences in Scotland to their advantage.

Nevertheless, on February 15, the jury unanimously found Drury guilty of murder. Drury filed an appeal, and in 2001, his conviction was overturned, resulting in a new trial.

Following an appeal, a panel of five judges from the Court of Criminal Appeals found that the original trial judge had given the jury incorrect information regarding provocation. As a result, Drury was slated to stand trial once again on Friday, August 17, 2001, with the expectation that the murder charge against him would be downgraded to the less serious offense of "culpable homicide" due to diminished responsibility.

In the retrial, a jury consisting of nine women and six men found Drury guilty of Marilyn's murder once again. Lord Dawson delivered the verdict, informing Drury of his conviction.

“The jury has convicted you of the crime of murder. There is only one sentence I can pass on you, and that is one of life imprisonment.”

If the jury had any doubts about their decision, it would have been dispelled upon discovering Drury's prior convictions. He had been previously convicted and sentenced to jail for assaulting an ex-girlfriend, whom he had stalked and terrorized, much like he did to Marilyn. He had brutally beaten and attempted to strangle the woman in her Glasgow apartment. Despite the severity of the crime, he was given a remarkably light sentence of only 60 days behind bars.

Following the brutal murder of her sister Marilyn, Aileen was resolute in her determination to seek justice for victims of domestic abuse. Marilyn's loved ones were at a loss to understand how a man like Stuart Drury could have carried out such a terror campaign that ended so tragically on the streets of Glasgow. Despite Drury's multiple court appearances, he persisted in assaulting Marilyn. In Aileen's own words,

 “There’s some kind of failing along the line. I feel there has to be training for the police. The attitude about stalking has to change, and I feel it has to go from there onto the judicial system, whereby they have to see it as being a serious criminal offense.”