A TEENAGER accused of the murder of a Czech fruit picker in Arbroath confessed, in tears, that he had stabbed a “foreigner” through the heart, a witness told the High Court in Perth yesterday.

Darren Pratt (32) said he was visiting a friend’s flat in the Brechin Road area of Arbroath when the accused, Adam Gallagher (18), came in with a girl.

He sat on the arm of a chair beside him and the witness said, “He sort of started crying and he said he had stabbed someone through the heart.”

Asked by Advocate Depute Alan Mackay what his reaction was, Mr Pratt said he asked the accused to sit somewhere else so he could avoid coming into contact with any blood.

Gallagher then told him it had happened “near the Commercial Pub, near the harbour in Arbroath,” Mr Pratt told the court.

“He seemed quite remorseful. The girl was laughing and said he had stabbed someone else in Montrose three days before.”

Gallagher then showed him the knife, which he described as a light blue handled “little tattie peeler” type of knife.

The accused and the girl only stayed for half an hour and had stopped talking about what had happened by the time they left.

Mr Mackay asked what sort of state the accused was in and the witness replied he was “hyperactive, on edge.”

Cross examined by Mark Stewart QC for Gallagher, he agreed the accused had told them that “the foreigner” was attacking his girlfriend.

Adam James Gallagher denies murdering Marek Smrz, Woodley Caravan Park, by Arbroath, by striking him on the body with a knife at Marketgate, Arbroath, on July 18 last year.

He also denies that, while acting with another, he stole a wallet and its contents at Old Shore Head on July 17 and being illegally in possession of a knife at Sidlaw Place and other streets in Arbroath between July 1 and July 18.

He further denies struggling with police in the Arbroath police office on July 18 and attempting to bite a detective.

He denies assaulting another man by presenting a knife at him at Arbroath’s Abbeygate Shopping Centre on March 11 2004.

It is alleged he was on bail at the time of all the charges.

Gallagher has lodged a special defence of self defence to the murder charge and has blamed another person for the theft of the wallet.

The accused’s former girlfriend Hazel Dryden (18) told the court Adam Gallagher went to help a man they came across lying face down on a grassy area when they were out for a walk round the harbour. She admitted she had taken the man’s wallet and when he became aware of the theft he started following them up the High Street, towards the Webster Theatre.

In a pend leading to the Marketgate car park she said the man made a grab at her jeans and Adam Gallagher threatened him then with a knife, saying, “You better stop touching my bird or I’ll stab you. Get lost.”

She told the court she shouted at him not to be stupid and told the court that Gallagher put the knife away.

“He went to grab Adam but he jumped back and ran away. The man then pushed me against the wall and started punching and kicking me.”

She could not say how many times she was hit on the arm and leg as she crouched against the wall before the accused returned to grab the man and allow her to run towards the road.

“I just stood up from the wall and I saw Adam punch him and I turned and ran,” she said, adding that as she ran, she looked back and saw the man fall.

“After the man fell, I turned back round. I started to make my way back and I shouted on Adam. When I got further up Adam was on the wall, I think he was going over it,” she told the court.

They ran towards the main Post Office and nothing was said for a couple of minutes until the accused told her that, “he thought he had stabbed him.”

She said that she took £7 she found in the wallet before “dumping it in a drain.”

They kept the money and spent it later.

Later still, she said the accused asked her for her jumper and used it to wrap up the knife before dumping it in a black bin.

Reminded of statements she made to police when interviewed the next day, she said she could not remember much of what she told the interviewing officers as she was heavily under the influence of heroin at the time she was taken in for questioning.

She agreed with Mr Stewart that she had been the accused’s girlfriend for a month at the time of the incident but had not seen him since.

Susan McComb (45) said she was aware of voices outside her home and heard someone with a foreign accent say “call police,” with someone in a local accent replying that they were trying to help.

This went on for about five minutes and when she looked out she said she saw one man squatting against a wall while the other spoke to him.

A girl was with the two men.

A 15-year-old schoolboy told the court that, half awake, he heard a girl screaming around midnight and then heard her call the name “Adam.”

Michael Smith (45) said he had been out with his partner and was returning home when she pointed out the form of a man on the ground in Marketgate.

When he went to investigate Mr Smith said, “I thought he was dead.”

He felt the man’s neck for a pulse but could find none.

The trial continues.