Funeral director strangled wife and smothered two-year-old son

A man who murdered his wife and son days after Christmas has been sentenced to life.

Garry Lockhart strangled his wife Janet, 29, and smothered his two-year-old son Michael at the family home in Bonnyrigg, Midlothian.

The 33-year-old had got into an argument with his wife after coming home drunk before killing her. He then placed a pillow over his son’s head and smothered him to death on December 28 last year.

At the High Court in Edinburgh on Thursday, the funeral director was sentenced to life in prison and ordered to serve a minimum of 25 years.

Judge Lady Wise told him: "Your actions have devastated your family and in particular your parents-in-law who have lost a precious daughter and a grandson to whom they were devoted.

"Nothing can be said today that will alleviate in any way the incalculable loss that they and all those who knew and loved Janet and Michael have suffered.

"To murder a vulnerable child who trusted and depended on you was a particularly wicked, unfathomable act. Your actions now require the imposition of a severe punishment.

"You did not kill Michael immediately after you murdered your wife. You fell asleep for some hours, were awoken by your son in the morning and then deliberately in the cold and more sober light of day first played with Michael, then put a pillow over his face and, when he struggled, put your hand over his nose and mouth until he could no longer breathe and died.

"This, the jury determined, was murder."