On 3 May 2008, Rab Thomson brutally stabbed to death his 7-year-old son Ryan and his 25-year-old daughter Michelle, who had severe learning difficulties, in the family home in Buckhaven, Fife. Thomson murdered the children in revenge after his wife June left him after she had suffered 27 years of abuse. Thomson, laid the children in their beds before cutting his wrists. June found the bodies of her children and Thomson survived.