Torture killers who inflicted 130 injuries on mum in Ayr flat jailed for 42 years

Michelle Ramage, 43, and Ryan Hill, 27, used a machete and golf club to torture and kill Susan Turner.

Two killers guilty of the brutal torture and murder of a mother have been jailed for a total of at least 42 years.

Michelle Ramage, 43, and Ryan Hill, 27, subjected Susan Turner to a horrific ordeal inflicting more than 130 injuries. Jealous Ramage had been raging after discovering the 41 year-old had been texting her 51 year-old lover Jason Bell.

Susan was horrifically set upon at Bell's flat in Ayr including being stripped, choked, stabbed with scissors, disfigured and bludgeoned with various weapons. The thugs were handed life sentences at the High Court in Glasgow.

Ramage was jailed for a minimum 22 years after she had earlier pleaded guilty to the March 2023 murder. Hill was locked up for at least 20 years after jurors found him guilty of the same charge.

Lord Mulholland told the duo: "You have both been convicted of the murder of a defenceless woman, who posed no threat to either of you. As she was being subjected to the homicidal assault, she begged you to let her go.

"You ignored her pleas and subjected her to a brutal and cowardly assault. It was akin to torture clearly designed to demean and disfigure her as a woman."

The judge warned the pair that they may never be freed. The trial told how Susan stayed near to Bell at the time.

Bell'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 Miss Turner to Bell.

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. Alexander was at a friend's home in the early hours of March 26 2023 when his brother turned up looking like "nervous wreck".

Bell reportedly stated "they are going to end up murdering her" or "they are going to end up doing away with her". Bell 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.

Bell 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".

The killing by the pair - both much bigger than Susan - included her being strangled with a dressing gown 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.

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.

Tony Lenehan KC, defending Ramage, said she was someone who had been "brutalised" from previous relationship, but was "a woman capable herself of brutality".

Hill's KC Shelagh McCall said he had a troubled childhood and that in 2021 the death of his grandmother - who brought him up - had affected him causing him to "spiral into alcohol addiction".

Bell had also faced the murder charge, but he was acquitted by jurors at the trial.

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