{"id":959347,"date":"2026-05-14T13:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T13:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/959347\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T13:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T13:24:15","slug":"woman-serving-life-for-frenzied-murder-in-paisley-launches-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/959347\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman serving life for \u2018frenzied\u2019 murder in Paisley launches appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n We previously reported that Stacey Balfour, 25, was ordered to serve a minimum of 16 years for her role in the death of Robert Fisher, 26, on July 23, 2023, at Maxwellton Street in Paisley<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n She is now appealing against the conviction and sentence.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Previously, a jury at the High Court in Glasgow<\/a> heard evidence how Mr Fisher was found critically injured in a flat in the Renfrewshire town.\n<\/p>\n

\n He died in hospital four days later.\n<\/p>\n

\n Jurors found Balfour and her then-partner Cameron Woods guilty of murder following a trial.\n<\/p>\n

\n Prosecutors said Woods fatally stabbed Mr Fisher while Balfour was \u201cacting in concert\u201d with him.\n<\/p>\n

\n Jurors initially convicted Woods of murder and convicted Balfour on the lesser charge of culpable homicide.\n<\/p>\n

\n Trial judge Lady Hood found the verdict against Balfour to be legally incompetent – in law, if Balfour had acted in concert with Woods in a murderous attack, she could not competently be convicted of culpable homicide while he was convicted of murder.\n<\/p>\n

\n Lady Hood then invited the jurors to reconsider their verdict on Balfour after giving them further directions in law.\n<\/p>\n

\n This resulted in the jury convicting Balfour of murder.\n<\/p>\n

\n At the time, Balfour\u2019s lawyer said the most appropriate course of action, in light of the culpable homicide verdict, was to record an acquittal.\n<\/p>\n

\n That motion was refused by Lady Hood, who sent the jury back out to reconsider their verdict on Balfour after giving them further directions in law.\n<\/p>\n

\n Lawyers for Balfour believe she suffered a miscarriage of justice.\n<\/p>\n

\n On Thursday, defence lawyer Thomas Ross KC addressed judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal<\/a> and argued that his client should not have been convicted of murder.\n<\/p>\n

\n He said: \u201cIt\u2019s clear, in my submission, that when the jury returned and attempted to convict Stacey Balfour by majority of culpable homicide, then they intended it to be a final verdict.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cMy starting point is that the jury intended to convict her of culpable homicide.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Woods was jailed for a minimum of 18-and-a-half years following the conclusion of proceedings.\n<\/p>\n

\n Jurors had earlier been told all three had been in a flat with other people in Paisley<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n During this time, a witness said Woods had been spotted with a large kitchen knife.\n<\/p>\n

\n Meanwhile, Balfour had shown someone a small lock-back blade – attached to a set of keys – which was later used in the fatal attack.\n<\/p>\n

\n The court heard the attack was launched after the atmosphere between the group in the flat became \u201cvolatile\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n Prosecutor Erin Campbell told the jury that it was clear \u201cthe situation escalated\u201d and eventually led to Mr Fisher being stabbed \u201cin what amounted to a murderous attack\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n The victim managed to stagger out of the flat with blood on his face and on his T-shirt.\n<\/p>\n

\n A man dialled 999 as Mr Fisher groaned in the background: \u201cI have been stabbed.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n He was taken to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital<\/a> in Glasgow, where he later died.\n<\/p>\n

\n During the trial, the court heard Mr Fisher had five separate stab wounds and possible defensive injuries.\n<\/p>\n

\n Ms Campbell told the jury: \u201cIf you are trying to strike someone in the head or chest then there are only two possibilities.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cEither you are deliberately trying to kill the person.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cOr you are so angry and wild in the moment, you have total disregard if the person lives or dies.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n The advocate depute told the court Mr Fisher had been subjected to a \u201cfrenzied attack\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n Woods was later stopped by police at a cycle track and found to be in possession of the murder weapon, with Mr Fisher\u2019s blood on it.\n<\/p>\n

\n Balfour initially told police she had last seen the victim when he left the flat with another man.\n<\/p>\n

\n Donald Findlay KC, defending Woods, said \u201cno one set out looking for trouble\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n He added: \u201cSomething clearly happened which led to a conflict.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere was a reaction to something.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Balfour\u2019s KC Thomas Ross said she had previously suffered a \u201ctraumatic\u201d incident in 2014 and had been in a \u201ctoxic relationship\u201d before the killing.\n<\/p>\n

\n On Thursday, Ms Campbell also addressed the appeal court and argued that the submissions made by Mr Ross should be rejected.\n<\/p>\n

\n She said: \u201cThe judge was correct to refuse to allow the verdict to be recorded, and to send them out again with additional directions.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe trial judge took the correct course of action in the circumstances of this case, and there has been no miscarriage of justice.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Lord Beckett, who sat with Lady Wise and Lady Carmichael, thanked the lawyers for their submissions and said the court would issue its decision sometime in the near future.\n<\/p>\n

\n He added: \u201cWe will take time to consider them and issue a decision in due course.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We previously reported that Stacey Balfour, 25, was ordered to serve a minimum of 16 years for her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":959348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,918,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-959347","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-glasgow","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116573154084836139","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=959347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/959348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=959347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=959347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=959347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}