The sister of murdered Annalise Johnstone has told of her emotional reunion with the big brother cleared of her brutal killing.

Shabbana Johnstone, 20, said she begged older sibling Jordan, 25, for the truth about what happened to their tragic sister Annalise after he was acquitted of her murder on a not proven verdict in May.

Shabbana, who is from Ardrossan, said Jordan he broke down in tears and apologised for failing to save his 22-year-old sister - but told his surviving sibling he did not kill her.

The pair met last week - six months after she last saw him in the dock to face claims he slit Annalise’s throat before dumping her body in woods.

Shabbana said: “I was ready to punch him but when we saw each other we fell into each other’s arms and started crying — we just broke down.

“We sat there in his van talking and I just kept asking him what happened. He said he would tell me the truth.”

Annalise’s throat was slit from ear to ear at Maggie Wall’s memorial near Dunning, Perthshire.

Johnstone was acquitted of the murder on a not proven verdict in May after blaming the horror on his ex Angela Newlands, 28, whose murder charge was dropped.

But he admitted changing his appearance, burning bloodstained clothes and burying the weapon that could have linked him to the killing.

The siblings’ dad Gordon, 44, vowed to stand by him after the verdict but sobbed that there was “no justice” for Annalise.

Johnstone claimed he was in the car when his sister and his ex Newlands visited the memorial. Shabbana said he told her he called out for Annalise from the car after she failed to return.

She said: “He said Angela had come back in and he was asking where his sister was.

“He jumped out of the car about five minutes later and saw her lying face-first on the stairs. He took off his T-shirt to wrap round her neck as he was shouting to the car for an ambulance to be called.”

But no ambulance was called.

Shabbana added: “He said he lifted her body and put it behind a big stone — not to hide her body but to leave it out in the open so somebody could find her.

“He said Annalise died in his arms. He was crying as he told me this. He thought an ambulance had been called and it was going to come and find her.

“And in a way, I believe him.”

Johnstone was convicted of assaulting Shabbana in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, days before Annalise was murdered.

He told his trial at the High Court in Livingston he and Newlands cleaned blood off her Ford Galaxy, which was caught on CCTV near the Maggie Wall monument on the night of the killing.

The jury also heard a recording of Johnstone falsely reporting Annalise missing to police in the early hours of May 10, 2018, hours before walkers found her remains.

He told the court he carried his dead sister “like a child” for nearly two miles along a darkened road.

He claimed he placed the corpse behind a wall as he feared Newlands was going to have it chopped up and disposed of.

And he said he agreed to cover up the killing because Newlands threatened to report him to police for rape.

The trial heard the cause of Annalise’s death was a deep puncture wound that killed her in minutes.

Newlands wept as judge Lady Scott told the jury there was insufficient evidence to convict her.

Shabbana added: “Nobody has yet been held responsible. I just want to get justice for my sister — her killer is out there.

“Somebody has got away with murder. I won’t give up until that person is behind bars.”