The jury hearing the case of a Friockheim woman accused of injecting heroin into a 14-year-old girl yesterday viewed a DVD recording of an interview in which she strongly denied the allegation.

Detective Constable Suzanne Smith told the court she conducted the interview with Louise Magdalena Dickson (31) on December 7 last year after Dickson was detained in relation to allegations made by the 14-year-old and other witnesses.

Dickson, of Guthrie Street, denies that between July 1 and December 3 last year, at her home address, at Arbroath Railway Station and elsewhere, she was concerned in the supply of the controlled class-A drug diamorphine (heroin) to others and in particular to a 14-year-old girl and to Mechelle Brown.

Dickson also denies that on an occasion between August 1 and December 3 last year, at her home address, she culpably and recklessly prepared heroin for injection into the 14-year-old girl, solicited Mechelle Brown to inject heroin into the girl and injected the girl with heroin herself, all to the danger of the girl’s life.

In the recorded interview, Dickson told officers she first met the 14-year-old, whom she described as “a little lassie,” during last year’s school summer holidays and had become friendly with her.

She told the officers, however, she had eventually told the girl to stop coming to her house following a number of occasions when she discovered the girl had been telling lies about her.

Denying she had ever supplied heroin to the girl, Dickson told the officers the only drugs she was aware of the girl using were prescription medicines stolen from her grandmother or illicit drugs obtained from other members of her family.

She admitted, however, that the girl had been present in her house when she had smoked and injected heroin but denied she had shown her how to inject the drug or injected the girl herself.

Earlier yesterday the Tayside Police surgeon who examined the girl said she found marks consistent with intravenous drug use on the girl’s arms.

Dr Magdalena Turowska said she was called to Arbroath police office on December 6 to carry out a physical examination on the girl, who was born on April 1, 1992, in the presence of Detective Constable Suzanne Smith and an appropriate adult.

Referring to photographs taken at the time, the police surgeon said she found what appeared to be an injection mark on the inside of the girl’s left elbow and, on asking the girl, had it confirmed that heroin had been injected there some days previously.

Dr Turowska said the mark was “practically healed but clearly visible” and its appearance was consistent with what the girl had told her.

On the girl’s right elbow joint the doctor said she found what appeared to be another well-healed injection mark, which the girl told her had occurred some three weeks previous to the examination.

The police surgeon also drew the court’s attention to a scar on the girl’s left arm which was explained by the girl as having resulted from a dog bite three months prior to the examination but which the doctor said could also be consistent with a healing abscess resulting from infection of an injection site.

Asked to describe the girl, Dr Turowska said she was “very small and skinny” for her age and said, “If I saw her in the street I would not have thought she was as old as 14.”

She added, “She was very nice and well-behaved…very helpful and co-operative.”

The witness said that if, as the court has heard, the girl had been injecting heroin on a daily or thrice weekly basis for the preceding three months, she would have expected there to have been more evidence visible.

Asked to describe the effects of heroin for the benefit of the jury, Dr Turowska said this varied between individuals and went on, “It causes a feeling of euphoria, of well-being, where all troubles go way.

“It seems a nice place to stay because there’s nothing to worry about.

“People sometimes have hallucinations and deep sensory feelings where they see, hear and notice things better but that’s the initial period of using heroin.

“Later they don’t really take it to feel high, they just take it to avoid withdrawal symptoms…to function, to feel normal.”

She told the court that as the physical and psychological dependence on the drug developed among users, heroin became “the only object of their desire” as the withdrawal symptoms—including nausea, vomiting, weakness, anxiety and diarrhoea—became apparent.

The need for higher doses to produce the same effect could produce respiratory problems which could lead to death.

Dr Turowska said, “Unfortunately, we as police surgeons are sometimes called to sudden or suspicious death cases and quite a lot of them are associated with heroin, where people have accidentally overdosed.”

She explained that long-term use caused deterioration of the internal organs—mainly the liver and kidneys—which left the body less able to cope with higher doses.

Under cross-examination by Dickson’s solicitor Nick Whelan, who asked her to comment on the suggestion the 14-year-old girl had on occasion gone to school less than two hours after injecting heroin, the witness said, “I would be surprised if that was the case.

“Heroin use would have had an effect on her at school. She would have been switched off, not concentrating, maybe sleepy during classes and I think the teachers would have noticed something was going on.

“A good teacher, I think, would have picked it up after about two or three times of her going to school after taking drugs because she would not be performing or behaving normally.

“With a careful and responsible teacher it would surely have raised some concern.”

The jury will today hear closing speeches before Sheriff Norrie Stein gives them legal direction and they retire to consider their verdict.