By Brian Smith

RESIDENTS OF Dens Road in Dundee gave harrowing accounts to the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday of an incident in which a man lost his life.

All spoke of their distress at witnessing the events unfolding in the street outside their windows.

James Simpson (16), Loganlee Terrace, Dundee, denies that on July 29 last year in Dens Road, he assaulted Steven Lee Jones (33), by chasing after him, repeatedly punching him on the head, whereby he fell to the ground and repeatedly punched and kicked him on the head and body and repeatedly stamped on his head and body and murdered him.

He further denies assaulting Daniel Pawlak (28) on the same day in Dens Road by punching and kicking him on the head and body to his injury.

Defence counsel Mark Stewart QC has lodged special defences of self defence stating Simpson had been assaulted by the two men where he is charged with murder and on the charge of assaulting Mr Pawlak, stating he was acting in his own defence and in defence of Kenneth Morland.

Paul Simpson (29), said he was in bed when the “ferocity” of the shouting and screaming outside made him look out his window.

He told the court he saw four people fighting in the middle of the road and watched as they split into two pairs, one on either side of the street.

The two taller men furthest away from his window were punching and shouting.

“I looked at the other two and when I looked back, one was on the ground. He was completely motionless, his arms by his side.

“The other standing male was stamping on his head. He was not defending himself, he wasn’t flinching at all when he was being jumped on.”

He told the court he saw the jumping motion, sometimes landing on one foot sometimes on both, five or six times before there was a pause and then the man on the ground was kicked four or five times.

Asked by advocate depute Alastair Carmichael to describe the force involved, he replied, “It looked from where I was standing as if it was his whole body weight.

“Both feet were off the ground.”

Counsel suggested it was easy in the courtroom to be analytical but the participants, some who may have been assaulted with bottles, adrenalin pumping, would have been taking split second decisions in a very different atmosphere.

“Perhaps,” Mr Simpson said.

Bruce Findlay (52), said he thought it was his son returning home, who was lying on the ground being attacked.

“It was like the person was knocked out before he hit the ground—as soon as he hit the ground he was motionless.

“In my opinion he was knocked out cold.

“The other one was leaping up on one leg and stamping on his head with one foot, two feet. I was screaming at him to stop, to stop, you are killing him.

“I panicked because I thought it was my kid. It was full weight, as hard as he could kick.

“As soon as the guy hit the deck, he should have left him alone.”

Mr Findlay added, “I ran down the hall and picked up an iron bar which was there from renovating the fireplace, a piece of flat bar that had come out of the chimney breast.”

Outside, he swung the bar and shouted making the men run.

He realised that although the clothing was similar the man on the ground was not his son.

He admitted that, even after they left, he so lost his senses he just wanted to hit people, even trying to attack the arriving police, not realising they were uniformed officers.

Mr Stewart observed that police described him as “delirious,” but the witness denied counsel’s suggestion that he was “delirious with drink.”

Mr Findlay accepted there were inconsistencies in his telling of what happened to the court and to police immediately after the incident.

He agreed he had heard a voice speaking what he thought was Polish, but now thought it came from one of the others involved rather than the person attacking the man on the ground, as he told police.

In tears, he conceded he could no longer be clear about what was his own memory and what came from conversations with others because he was so nervous about appearing in court.

Chef Ivan Bateesa (25), said he had returned home around 1.20am from work.

About five minutes later he said he heard shouting and looked out to see two people fighting on one side of the street and another two fighting on the opposite side.

He described one of the men being tripped and falling on his right hand side and being kicked and stamped on the right hand side of his head as he tried to cover his face with his hands.

Mr Bateesa used a courtroom chair laid on its back to kick out and stamp with his right foot to illustrate what happened and said he thought as many as eight, perhaps more, kicks and stamps landed on the man’s head.

He said, “The kicks were very strong, like someone kicking a football. He just didn’t seem to care what he was doing.”

The advocate depute asked could the man doing the kicking have done anything else?

Mr Bateesa replied, “He could have walked away.”

He agreed when Mr Stewart said, “You have no idea of the start of the incident, of the level of threat, of the danger that they may have felt they were in.

“No idea of the need for self-defence that might be presented to people at that time or the degree of provocation that was being handed out to these people before the incident you saw.”

Kenneth Morland (18), was asked by the advocate depute what the accused was saying as CCTV pictures showed them walking towards the Hilltown clock.

Cameras following them after they left the incident picked him up making a stamping motion with his right foot.

“He was telling us about fighting with the tall guy. I can’t remember exactly what he was saying,” Mr Morland said.

Cross-examined by Mr Stewart the witness said he tried to stay out of the initial confrontation between Steven Jones and James Simpson.

He only became involved when Daniel Pawlak struck the accused with the bottle as he traded punches with Mr Jones.

“I got hold of him and tried to chuck him out of the way. I thought it was going to get uglier. I thought James was going to get a good punching,” the witness said.

The trial continues.