Stacey Dooley's latest BBC Three documentary, Fallen Women, aired on October 13, investigates the landmark case of Kimberley Milne, a young Scot who jumped from a bridge to her death after sustained domestic abuse was found to be a significant contributing factor.
Kimberley, born Kimberley Bruce, died in July 2023 after jumping from a bridge and being struck by multiple vehicles on the A90 dual carriageway. In the first prosecution of its kind in Scotland, her husband Lee Milne, 40, was convicted of culpable homicide after a jury found him responsible.
Landmark Conviction
Police said Kimberley was "clearly terrified" of Milne, and that her death was the result of her taking "a course of action to get away from him". Milne was also found guilty of a separate charge of domestic abuse at several properties in Dundee.
Prosecutors said Kimberley had suffered significant violence at Milne's hands in the 18 months before her death, including choking, grabbing her by the hair, striking her, shouting and swearing.
Wider Pattern
Dooley, known for her international documentaries on child labour, sex trafficking and ISIS brides, said she has been more hands-on than ever in this investigation. She explained: "I'm much more involved in pre-production and post."
"When you look at the numbers, and you look at the parallels, and you look at the details, there are loads of women who are falling to their death," she said. "Also, there were so many similarities, like so many of the girls were in really abusive relationships for a very long time, and the perpetrator of those situations was there at the time that she fell."
Dooley linked Kimberley's death to a similar case in Bristol, where a woman jumped after a physically abusive relationship. She said: "There was a girl in Bristol. She was going out with this guy. It was just chaos. A toxic, turbulent, awful relationship. He was physically abusive. She jumped too, but the night she dies, he called her mum saying: 'I know it's your daughter, but I'm going to have to kill her.' But the conclusion was that it was suicide."
Case Details
Kimberley got together with Lee in late 2021 and they married in September 2022. Prosecutors said the abuse began early in the relationship and continued until the day of her death. Among the incidents was an attack in early 2022 when Milne choked her.
Speaking to police before her death, Kimberley said: "Lee and I were in his home and he went through my phone. He saw messages from other men before we were together. He got angry and started to shout and swear at me." Another assault occurred months later when Milne yanked her by the hair to the ground before apologising, claiming he was "not that type of guy".
In late 2022, Kimberley said she discovered her husband had allegedly been cheating on her. He was said to have got "angry" and hit her on the head, causing her to fall and slip unconscious.
Legal Impact
The jury convicted Milne of culpable homicide and domestic abuse in March 2026. He was sentenced the following month to eight years in prison, followed by three years of supervision. Reports described it as the first Scottish conviction of its kind after a contested trial.
The legal significance is that the jury accepted an abuser can be criminally responsible for a partner's death by suicide when the abuse is proved to have caused it, even without physically pushing the person. In the documentary, Dooley meets bereaved families, survivors, detectives, lawyers and campaigners, and explores how coercive control can shape women's lives long before a fatal incident. She also meets the family of Bianca Thomas, a young mother from Birmingham who died after falling from an 11th-floor balcony; her death was ruled accidental, but her family still have questions.
