The trio accused of the killing of Steven Donaldson were each involved in a “murderous plan” hatched on the evening before the 27-year-old’s body was found charred and beaten at an Angus nature reserve, High Court jurors have been told.
In a two-hour closing speech on the 19th day of the trial of Steven Dickie, Callum Davidson and Tasmin Glass, Crown prosecutor Ashley Edwards QC said all three played their part with “wicked disregard for the consequences” on the night of June 6 last year.
The accused, from Kirriemuir, deny murdering oil worker Mr Donaldson on June 6 or 7 last year after attacking him at Kirriemuir’s Peter Pan playpark, and then further attacking him with a baseball bat and knife and a heavy bladed instrument at Loch of Kinnordy, near Kirriemuir and setting fire to him and his car.
Ms Edwards said Davidson was not the “simple country lad” he might have the jury believe, and she told them Glass had “facilitated” Mr Donaldson’s arrival at the Peter Pan playpark on Kirrie Hill after she used her two co-accused to “stop her web of lies unravelling” around the state of her life at the time.
Parts of the case featured an “obvious flashing red light to signal the guilt of the accused”.
The advocate depute said it also included smaller bits of evidence which drew together to make a “full and complete picture” of all three being responsible for the “brutal” death of the Arbroath oil worker. She urged the jury to reject any submission that a charge of culpable homicide should be considered for Glass.
“All three were responsible for the death of Steven Donaldson in the knowledge that weapons were to be taken to a meeting with him,” said Ms Edwards.
“What followed was a brutal and sustained attack by the first and second accused,” added the prosecutor, reminding the jury of evidence indicating Mr Donaldson had been “fighting for his life” at the Kinnordy Loch RSPB reserve where his body was discovered just before 5am on June 7.
She said the other charges, dropped at the conclusion of evidence, showed a “pattern of behaviour of Davidson and Dickie following a course of conduct centred around partners and current and ex-girlfriends of Steven Dickie”.
Glass, she added, knew of the reputation of Dickie and Davidson, the trial having heard how she believed then boyfriend Dickie would “go mental” if he knew Mr Donaldson had called her that night. “Her evidence is incredible and unreliable,” said Ms Edwards.
Of Davidson, she said: “You might think with his evidence he tried to portray a simple country lad.”
The prosecutor said it was her submission that was not the case, the trial having heard evidence of a web search for a steel machete, and Davidson’s “eye for a business opportunity” after offering to “sort out” someone for £400.
“Piece by piece, the evidence goes towards that final complete picture of the guilt of all three of the crime of murder. Of the murder of Steven Donaldson,” said the advocate depute.
The charges
The jury will consider only the charge of murder.
At the conclusion of Crown and defence evidence at the Edinburgh High Court trial against Steven Dickie, Callum Davidson and Tasmin Glass, Crown prosecutor Ashley Edwards indicated she was dropping five charges on the indictment against the two male accused. An allegation against Dickie and Davidson that they abused a kitten at Lochore in Fife was dropped.
Dickie and Davidson, both 24, had also faced two charges of threatening men by following them and presenting weapons on dates between 2014 and last year, and staring at a woman and kicking her car in Kirriemuir between August 2017 and April last year. Davidson had been accused of assaulting a man at the house in Glengate, and Dickie of assaulting a woman in the Ogilvy Arms pub between February 1 and 28 last year.
Trial judge Lord Pentland formally acquitted Dickie and Davidson of the five charges.
He told the jury that although the charges against the two men had been withdrawn, the panel of eight women and seven men were entitled to take evidence before them into account in their deliberations on the remaining charge of murder.
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