The gruesome death of a businesswoman who was set alight by her ex-partner is to be probed by a sheriff.
Kevin Marks stood over Ann Drummond, 47, and laughed as she rolled around the ground in a bid to extinguish the flames engulfing her body. He started the lethal blaze in her car at a road near Bathgate, West Lothian, in June 2019.
Marks, 50, was charged with murder but prosecutors later accepted a not guilty plea on the basis his mental health was so poor that he was not responsible for his actions.
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A fatal accident inquiry into the brutal incident has now been ordered. The probe will 'examine the mental health care and treatment' provided to Marks prior to the fatal attack.
A preliminary hearing has been set for November at Livingston Sheriff Court. In October 2020, the High Court in Edinburgh heard medics found more than 80 per cent of Drummond's body was injured by burns caused by the fire.
She later died at Glasgow's Royal Infirmary Hospital after doctors concluded her injuries were so severe that she couldn't survive. Psychiatrists who later examined Marks concluded that he had suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
The court heard Drummond had previously been so worried about his poor mental health she had gone to meet him at court moments after he had been released on bail on other charges.
Officers were so concerned by his mental health that he was twice assessed by community forensic nurses but the medical staff concluded he was fit to be released.
Judge Simon Collins KC ordered Marks, also known as McFaulds, be held at the State Hospital in Carstairs, Lanarkshire, without limit of time.
A notice announcing the inquiry said: "The inquiry is a discretionary inquiry under section 4 of the Inquiries into Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths etc. (Scotland) Act 2016, as the said Ann Margaret Drummond died as a result of being assaulted by Kevin Marks or McFaulds.
"This inquiry is necessary to examine the mental health care and treatment provided to the said Mr Marks or McFaulds prior to the incident."
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