By Maura Bowman and Brian Smith

ELIZABETH MCCABE once got into a car she thought was a taxi and was once mistaken for a prostitute in a Dundee city centre pub, the high court in Edinburgh heard yesterday.

She also fell out with a friend because she said she had slept with the friend’s boyfriend.

These were among the events and incidents in the time before she disappeared and her body was found in Templeton Woods on the outskirts of Dundee 27 years ago that were recounted yesterday by her friend Sandra Niven.

Miss Niven (49), who worked beside Elizabeth at the Dallfield Nursery, said they became close friends and were intending to leave home and take a flat together.

She told of Elizabeth’s “shock” at being propositioned by a man who mistook her for a prostitute in a Dundee city centre pub they used to frequent on their regular weekend nights out together.

She also recalled an incident when Elizabeth, who she described as “very shy and very reserved,” got into a car she thought was a taxi. What happened was not something she would talk about, the witness told the court.

Miss Niven also remembered a falling out between them when she believed Elizabeth had slept with her boyfriend.

Vincent John Simpson (61), from Camberley, denies that between February 10 and February 26, 1980, at Union Street, Templeton Woods and elsewhere in Dundee to the prosecutor unknown he assaulted Elizabeth McCabe, now deceased, and struck her on the head, seized her neck, compressed her neck and murdered her.

Defence counsel Mark Stewart QC has lodged special defences of incrimination and alibi.

The defence of incrimination states that the crime, if committed, was committed by one or more of 13 named individuals—Brian Lindsay, Ronald Bell, Philip Carlin, James Kinloch, John Cant Smith, James Fraser, Ronald Webster, Daniel Cockrane (deceased), Stephen McGuire, Charles Lamont, Robert Wilson, Paul Craigie and Stephen Cockrane.

The defence of alibi states that on February 10/11 between 10pm and 4am the accused was at his then address, Belmont Road in Newtyle, or conducting a taxi business conveying fares between Muirhead, Birkhill and Meigle and various points in Dundee or was at the Chevalier Casino.

Sandra Niven said she had known Elizabeth McCabe at Menzieshill High School but they had not been friends until Elizabeth started at Dallfield Nursery, where she had already been working for around six months to a year.

They began going out together at weekends after Elizabeth asked if she could come along. Elizabeth joined the group she used to “hang about” with at the time. That included some boys their own age and some who were older, among them Brian Lindsay, Charlie Lamont, James Lettice, John Higgins and Jimmy Logan.

She said it was their usual practice to meet up at the TSB in Meadowside and their routine was to go on to the Hansom Cab, Oriental, Glamis Bar and Central Bar in that order. They would have one, maximum two, half pints of lager in each pub but she said they were never drunk.

On a Friday and Saturday night they would go to a disco but not usually on a Sunday as she had work and Elizabeth had college the next day.

Advocate depute Alex Prentice asked how they would get home. Miss Niven said if they got the last bus back they would be home for 11.15pm but if they missed that they would take a taxi or walk back to Lochee and be home about 2am.

If they stopped for something to eat they would not have enough for a taxi and would walk the couple of miles from the centre to their home. She said neither she nor Elizabeth ever stayed out overnight but would occasionally go on to someone’s flat for a couple of hours.

Sandra Niven said that she had started going out with Brian Lindsay, who was a landscape gardener, around March 1979 and the relationship ended in April 1980. She said that Elizabeth had started going out with Charlie Lamont, a train driver, and on one or two occasions the couple had accompanied her to Mr Lindsay’s flat in Logie Street.

On the occasions she went with Elizabeth they left in the early hours of the morning and went home together.

Miss Niven said that she and Elizabeth fell out between Christmas 1979 and New Year because “Elizabeth told me she had slept with Brian.”

Though Miss Niven wasn’t happy, they made up and remained friends, she told the court.

Asked by Mr Prentice for her understanding of the nature of the relationship between Elizabeth and Charlie Lamont, Miss Niven said she understood that her friend slept with him.

On two or three occasions when they had gone out together Elizabeth went home without her, said Miss Niven. She assumed that on those occasions her friend would get a taxi.

On one occasion there was an incident that made Elizabeth McCabe wary of getting into vehicles, she recalled.

“She told me that she got in a car thinking it was a taxi and it obviously wasn’t a taxi because the driver took her away up the back of yon,” she said. Elizabeth did not go into any detail about what had happened but was very upset, she said.

“She told me that the driver of the car let her off in Coupar Angus Road which wasn’t far from where she lived,” she added. After that, Elizabeth wouldn’t get in a taxi if it didn’t have the light lit on top.

Mr Prentice then turned to the weekend of Elizabeth McCabe’s disappearance.

Miss Niven said she was not aware of anything worrying her friend that week.

She said they went out on the Saturday, during the day to go shopping and she bought a V-necked jersey and believed Elizabeth had also bought one in a bluey-green colour.

They went for coffee and Elizabeth told her she had been propositioned and mistaken for a prostitute the previous evening in the Oriental Bar. Her friend was shocked by what had happened but was able to laugh about it by the Saturday.

There was nothing in Elizabeth’s behaviour that would have justified such a mistake, she added.

On Saturday night they went to a number of public houses and met up with a number of the usual crowd.

Elizabeth had told her that she “really, really liked” Charlie Lamont and she was happy about that.

She and Brian Lindsay had an argument and ended up outside the pub and Brian had lifted his hand as though to slap her but Elizabeth had stood between them and intervened.

Miss Niven said after that incident she decided to leave and Elizabeth came after her and she believed they got a taxi home.

Earlier, Elizabeth’s mother, Mrs Anne McCabe (67), was questioned by Mr Mark Stewart for the defence. She agreed that before they moved to Lyndhurst Avenue, where they were staying at the time Elizabeth disappeared, they had lived in Menzieshill.

She accepted that a family called Kinloch would have stayed not far from their maisonette in Tweed Crescent but said she did not know the family.

Mr Stewart went on to ask about Elizabeth’s work at Dallfield Nursery and college course where she was studying for qualifications to become a nursery nurse.

She agreed that as part of that course Elizabeth had placements at various nurseries in Dundee and was on placement at the Law Nursery at the time she went missing.

Until October 1979, Mrs McCabe said Elizabeth did not go out much socially but after becoming friendly with Sandra Niven, they would go out most weekends.

Mr Stewart asked if she could recall whether there was any pattern to their weekends and she said, “I can’t really remember, it was such a short time-span from October.”

Mrs McCabe agreed that when she gave evidence on Friday she had spoken of various names that were part of the group with whom her daughter and friend would socialise. The names included Charlie Lamont and Brian Lindsay.

Mr Stewart asked if there were times when Elizabeth would stay out overnight but had phoned first to let her mother know. She said she could not remember Elizabeth doing this.

Mr Stewart referred her to the notes taken by a police officer after she went to report Elizabeth missing. Those notes contained a passage in which the officer recorded that Elizabeth usually returned home, “but on any occasion she was staying out she will phone her mother beforehand.” Mrs McCabe said she could no longer remember telling the officer that.

With the help of a map, Mr Stewart took Mrs McCabe through the route from Dundee city centre to the family home in Lyndhurst Avenue. She could not say for sure if Elizabeth would ever walk home, as opposed to taking a taxi, but it would be no surprise to her if that were the case.

If she were walking, she would come via Lochee Road, Logie Street and Lochee High Street as that was the most direct route. Mrs McCabe agreed that it would take 10 to 15 minutes to walk from Logie Street to Lyndhurst Avenue.

Mr Stewart put it to Mrs McCabe that she had become worried when Sandra Niven had phoned at about 5 o’clock on the Monday looking for Elizabeth because it became clear that her daughter was not with her friend.

“I had been worried all day,” said Mrs McCabe. “My daughter wasn’t in her bed and I was expecting her to be in her bed. I had intended going to the police anyway if she wasn’t home.”

Mr Stewart suggested that during the telephone conversation with Sandra Niven there had been a discussion about where Elizabeth might be and if Brian Lindsay might be able to shed some light on it.

Mrs McCabe replied, “I have no recollection of that at all.”

Asked if a visit she made to Brian Lindsay’s flat had taken place on the Tuesday, Mrs McCabe said she didn’t think it was that soon. She recalled that as they asked about Elizabeth, his mother said she thought she heard someone knocking on the door on the night Elizabeth went missing.

Mrs McCabe told the court that Elizabeth was very particular about her appearance when she was going out.

Mr Stewart then asked if she and one of the daughters went into town to see if they could get any information about Elizabeth in the days after she went missing and went to some of the pubs they thought she might have been at.

“You were a bit shocked by the pub you went into?” Mr Stewart asked. “Yes,” she replied.

“It was not very nice?” Mr Stewart continued. “No,” Mrs McCabe said.

The trial continues.