A jury was asked yesterday to convict an accountant of stabbing his wife to death in a “brutal and furious” attack. David Lilburn, 45, inflicted 86 stab wounds to the chest, head and limbs of his wife Ann, 43.

Mr Lilburn does not deny carrying out the attack in Paisley but has claimed diminished responsibility because of serious mental illness, which made him believe that a “black shadow” was controlling him and sending him telepathic messages to kill his wife, the defence claimed. The defence said that Mr Lilburn had failed to take medication for his condition and should be convicted of culpable homicide.

In his closing speech Derek Ogg, QC, for the prosecution, asked the jurors at the High Court in Glasgow to find Mr Lilburn guilty of murder.

He said: “A faithful wife's life was taken in a most brutal and furious manner.” He said that the wounds were inflicted “with such force ... only death could have been imagined as the intention.”

Mr Ogg said that Mrs Lilburn had discovered her husband was having an affair and planned to divorce him. The “black shadow” was an excuse for Mr Lilburn's anger when he was confronted by his wife, Mr Ogg said.

Mr Lilburn, who had a long history of mental illness, was able to convince a succession of doctors and psychiatrists that he had forgotten to take his medicine, and this led him to carry out the attack, Mr Ogg claimed.

Andrew Lamb, QC, for the defence, claimed that it would have been out of character for Mr Lilburn to kill his wife in a fit of rage. He said that his history of mental illness was the reason behind the killing.

Mr Lilburn had had bi-polar disorder and schizo-affective disorder diagnosed. Symptoms of the condition include depressive and manic episodes, as well as elements of schizophrenia, delusions, and mood swings.

Mr Lamb said: “His assertion he was controlled by the ‘black shadow' at the time of the killing is consistent with the psychiatric history.”

Srikath Nimmigadda, a consultant forensic psychiatrist, told the court earlier that he had examined Mr Lilburn for several months, who had told him he was not taking anti-psychotic medication regularly. He concluded that the mental condition of Mr Lilburn meant that he committed the crime in a state of diminished responsibility.

Temporary judge Ian Peebles, QC, told the jury that if they accepted the case by the defence the murder charge should be reduced to a lesser one of culpable homicide.

The trial continues.

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