15 YEARS FOR MARGARET'S HIT-RUN KILLER; MONSTER MUM CRUSHED VICTIM WITH CAR.

Byline: By Gordon McIlwraith

HIT AND RUN murderer Rona MacKenzie was jailed for at least 15 years yesterday for crushing a mother of three under the wheels of her car.

MacKenzie, 46, showed no emotion as the judge said her attack on bitter enemy Margaret Borris was "deliberate and horrific".

She waved to her pals before she was led away to start her life sentence.

MacKenzie and Margaret, 39, both had kids by the same man, 50-year-old James Wandrum.

And the killer's hatred for her victim boiled over after a petty incident involving an injured dog.

Wandrum's white Alsatian hurt its paw when it was hit by a car while Margaret was walking it.

MacKenzie was furious. And when she spotted Margaret in the street in her home town of Paisley in July last year, she decided to use her silver Volkswagen Polo as a murder weapon.

Bystanders watched in horror as MacKenzie drove straight at Margaret, knocking her down and dragging her along the road under the car.

Witnesses said the killer was "cool as a cucumber" and "unemotional".

Margaret, who had been on the way to pick up her mum's pension, suffered 73 injuries and died shortly after arriving at hospital.

Herson Paul, 20, who was with her when she was attacked, said MacKenzie reversed over her body three times but the jury rejected his claim.

Sick MacKenzie bragged about what she had done. The killer's boyfriend at the time, RobertMullen, told her trial: "She said Maggie pushed the front of the car and sniggered at her.

"She gave her a wee bump with the car. She said Maggie sniggered again so she just put it into first and drove over her."

MacKenzie also told her son in a phone call from Cornton Vale jail: "I sorted it because she was laughing in the background like Myra Hindley."

The killer tried to cover her tracks by dumping the Polo in a reservoir. An angler spotted the car and called police.

MacKenzie told the cops she didn't even have a car but they found CCTV pictures of her driving the Polo.

Despite the evidence, MacKenzie denied murdering Margaret and attempting to defeat justice by dumping the Polo near Beith, Ayrshire.

Jurors at the High Court in Glasgow took just 90 minutes to convict her on both counts. Charges that MacKenzie and Wandrum violently mugged Margaret three weeks before the murder were dropped during the trial.

Margaret, from Irvine, Ayrshire, was with Wandrum for 20 years but they split up months before she was killed. Relatives are now caring for her two youngest kids, aged 10 and three.

MacKenzie and Wandrum were a couple 30 years ago and had a son, James junior, who is now dead.

Sentencing MacKenzie at the High Court in Edinburgh, Lady Dorrian said: "A social inquiry report suggests you have expressed remorse.

"If that is so, it is in sharp distinction to your actions on that day and your attitude thereafter."

MacKenzie got five years, to run concurrent with her life term, for dumping the car. Margaret's family refused to comment as they left court.

CAPTION(S):

SNARED: MacKenzie, seen at court yesterday, was charged after cops dragged death car from reservoir; 73 INJURIES: Victim Margaret