Jeannie Smith

Jeannie Smith was stabbed outside her home in a brawl in the early hours of the Saturday morning 31 October 2009.

A man was convicted for her murder but his conviction was later overturned. The judges said that there were severe question marks over the reliability of a witness who identified him in court. The man who had said in court that he was 100% sure that the man on trial was the man who had stabbed Jeannie Smith was later shown to have attended two identity parades earlier on when he had not been able to identify anyone in the first parade and on the second occasion had picked out a stand in.

The brawl in Oronsay Road started after a drunken youth made an insulting remark in Calderglen Court and youth's started fighting each other with weapons which then moved into Oronsay Road where it escalated.

During the brawl Jeannie Smith was said to have left her home and gone into her garden after fearing that her son was involved in the brawl. It was then said that three people had followed her there and that one of them had lunged at her after which she was said to have said 'I have been stabbed.'.

She was then taken to Monklands General Hospital but died later that day.

The brawl was described as a large-scale disturbance and had involved around 20 people some of whom were armed.

Her husband had also been hit on the head with a bottle and her son slashed in the face. Her brother-in-law was also stabbed in the side and got a black eye and his wife was slashed in the face and needed 30 stiches.

The police said that they had a wall of silence when they carried out their investigations.

Jeannie Smith was a Rawyards House nursing home worker.