By Brian Smith and Grant Smith

ONE OF the last people to see Elizabeth McCabe alive described the last time he saw her to the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday.

Graeme Webster told the court he was going out with Karen Niven, the sister of Elizabeth McCabe’s friend Sandra, in 1980.

He said he was spoken to by police officers on February 27, the day after Elizabeth’s body was found in Templeton Woods.

He agreed he told officers who interviewed him in 1980 that he was at Teazers disco in Union Street with his girlfriend Karen. He could not recall yesterday whether they arrived before or after Elizabeth and Sandra.

He met Elizabeth through her friendship with Sandra and had seen her in and around pubs in Dundee and spoken to her when he was out with his girlfriend.

In the statement he said, “On Sunday, February 10, I went to Teazers with Karen and we were there around about 11.10pm.

“Shortly after, Sandra, Elizabeth and two other boys I did not know arrived. Karen spoke to Elizabeth and we sat at a table.”

He said just before the end of the disco he saw Elizabeth walk out through the double doors which led to the stairs and the way out to the street. He told police he did not know where she had gone and he and Karen left at about 12.30am.

In response to a question from advocate depute Alex Prentice, he recalled that he was on his way to the bar to buy a drink when he saw Elizabeth cross his path to leave.

Mr Prentice asked if he thought the bar was still open and Mr Webster told him he could recall buying drinks and returning to his table.

Cross-examined by defence counsel Mark Stewart, Mr Webster said he thought the disco closed at 1am but was open to correction.

He agreed that if Elizabeth had to collect a coat, perhaps she spoke to Sandra Niven before leaving and then went out to the street, it would all take some time.

Retired police officer Henry Kennedy said he took a statement from an employee of the Old Mansion House Hotel in Auchterhouse in 1980.

The employee, Freda Duncan, who has since died, told the officer she had been working late at a function on February 11, 1980, and left to go home in a taxi. A guest at the hotel was also taking the same taxi.

The cab was driven by Vincent Simpson from Newtyle she said.

Mr Kennedy told the court that at the gates of Camperdown Park the other passenger pointed out a car parked there and asked Vincent Simpson if it was one of his taxis.

Freda Duncan, the officer continued, told him she saw a blue car with a taxi sign on the roof. She saw a man getting in and described him as being in his early 20s, five foot four inches tall, slim build with light-coloured, short hair.

She was sure that Mr Simpson would remember the driver. She did not know what kind of car the blue taxi was. Mr Kennedy said he recalled he had checked the date with her employer.

Fraser Wilson said he had been a taxi driver in Dundee since 1968.

In 1980 he was working for Hill Cabs in the Hilltown and, like all taxi drivers in the city, was interviewed by police after the discovery of Elizabeth McCabe’s body.

At the time he said the main cab ranks were at City Churches in the Nethergate, in the Murraygate, at the Station and, at weekends, they were allowed to park at the nightclubs.

“I used to sit at the Barracuda rank on what is now the Marketgait,” he said.

He told police he did not recognise the photograph of Elizabeth he was shown but had been working on the night of February 10/11. He had not picked her up nor had his work taken him near Camperdown Park.

He was asked by the officer interviewing him in 1980 if he was aware of “pirate taxis” operating in Dundee.

He said he had seen a beige Mk IV Ford Cortina, possibly from Newtyle and with a taxi sign on its roof, in Dundee probably two or three times in preceding months.

He said he knew it was from Newtyle because a friend had a garage there and he had seen it parked there.

Cross-examined by Mr Stewart, the witness agreed that to ask any driver to remember their fares from two weeks ago was an impossible question.

Mr Stewart suggested there was more than one pirate taxi in Dundee at that time.

Mr Wilson agreed, saying, “Carnoustie taxis, Tayport taxis—they still do it.”

Referring to recent strikes, Mr Stewart suggested they were related to pirate taxis and was corrected by Mr Wilson, who said the dispute concerned private hire cabs.

Asked if a private hire car was not a pirate, the witness said it was not.

Retired Tayside police traffic officer Eric Kidd was asked about a form referring to a Ford Cortina owned by the accused, which noted that the car operated frequently in Dundee but was not a Dundee taxi.

Asked why he submitted this information to police control, Mr Kidd could not recall but said he probably received a complaint from a licensed taxi driver.

During cross-examination, Mr Stewart took the witness through several questionnaires circulated among taxi drivers asking for information about pirate taxis operating in Dundee.

He asked them if pirate taxis were a problem at the time to which the witness replied, “They probably were for the taxi drivers.”

Mr Stewart asked whether in the case of Mr Simpson’s taxi the report said it had been doing anything other than picking up or dropping off booked fares. Mr Kidd said it did not.

Earlier, a forensic scientist said she had not been asked specifically to look for a link to the death of Elizabeth McCabe which may involve anyone other than Vincent Simpson.

Beginning her second day in the witness box, Yvonne McLaren was reminded by Mr Stewart of the report she had prepared following examination of a black plastic groundsheet.

Mr Stewart reminded her the purpose of the report was, he suggested, “To find any scientific support for the assumption that Vincent Simpson had been involved in the murder of Elizabeth McCabe.”

The report was to focus on whether any identification could be made between biological material and DNA to the crime scene. He recalled that the result was negative and the witness agreed.

Mr Stewart asked if she was asked to carry out a similar exercise to find scientific support for identification of biological material found at the site and DNA, but this time focus on a potential link to Charles Lamont.

He repeated the same question in relation to Brian Lindsay and was told by Miss McLaren, “No, we were just looking for biological material, we didn’t know who it had come from.”

Mr Stewart went on to ask if she was instructed to carry out the exercise in relation to any of the 13 “suspects” named on the defence notice of incrimination, and she said she was not.

Miss McLaren was asked about a series of comments she made in official reports regarding the state of the packaging in which some of the evidence had been kept.

She confirmed a handbag found in Cobden Street, Dundee, was presented to her laboratory in 2004 in packaging that was open. Debris from a jumper from the Templeton Woods crime scene was listed as “damaged and not suitable for swabbing.”

Debris from Elizabeth McCabe’s left leg and from around her head were both listed as “not in a sealed bag” and her watch had been in a bag with a small hole in it.

A brown tortoiseshell hairgrip recovered from a Ford Cortina owned by the accused had been in an open bag, the witness confirmed.

Mr Stewart also asked her about a vaginal swab which was examined in 1996. He put it to her that she received this swab directly from her colleague James Dunlop.

Mr Stewart asked if this was normal practice, to which the witness replied, “No, that would not have been normal procedure.

“I do not know where Jim got the swab from.

“I just know he handed it to me.”

Asked about incomplete paperwork relating to the swab, she said there were times when, to obtain a quick result, paperwork was not always completed at the time an item was submitted.

Mr Stewart put it to her that as part of the examination of the swab a slide was created but later mislaid.

She replied, “I think from my recollection that it is a missing item from the laboratory.”

Asked if the fact that the paperwork had not been completed may have been a factor in its disappearance, she said that was possible.

Mr Stewart referred to a memo Miss McLaren wrote in 1999 following discussion with police officer Nick Hull. She confirmed this included the statement “the integrity of the productions does not sound good.”

Re-examined by Mr Prentice the witness said her comment was in relation to only two of the productions in the case, the black plastic sheet and the debris from Miss McCabe’s face.

Asked if she approached her work with any kind of bias she replied, “I don’t see how you can.

“We were asked to look for something and it’s either there or it’s not.”

She agreed she was made aware of an assertion by the police that Vincent Simpson murdered Elizabeth McCabe but said this had not affected her scientific impartiality.

“We need to know the nature of the allegations to know what we are looking for,” she said.

The trial continues.