A Dundee property developer has been acquitted as he stood trial accused of knocking a former employee unconscious with a hammer.
Derek Mawhinney was charged with leaving Wayne Robertson seriously injured in the incident in December 2020 in the Menzieshill area of Dundee.
Mr Robertson, 37, was found lying in the street by his horrified partner, who feared he was dead with a “hole in the head”.
He spent weeks in hospital recovering, Dundee Sheriff Court was told.
Injured man’s evidence
Mr Robertson, a roofer, told jurors how he used to work for Mr Mawhinney for “two to three years”.
The court was not told if there was bad blood between them.
Mr Robertson said in the minutes before he was injured, Mr Mawhinney phoned to say he was coming to see him.
He told the jury: “I had had an accident a few months before that where I fell from a four-storey building and was on heavy medication.
“I sustained quite a few injuries.
“I had a pin and plates fitted in both arms and the day before this, I had to go for an operation to get a pin and plate put in my arm.”
Mr Robertson said he was using a shovel outside his partner’s home on Lossie Place to clear items when Mr Mawhinney arrived in a van and parked nose-to-nose with his own van.
He said: “We were speaking about something, I can’t remember what we were speaking about. It happened that quick.”
When fiscal depute Andrew Harding asked Mr Robertson the next thing he remembered, he said: “Waking up in hospital.”
Mr Robertson said he could remember very little after suffering a serious head injury which left his speech affected for several months.
He said Mr Mawhinney stood with his arms folded next to the van and believed he was carrying something in his sleeve but never saw any item.
Found partner in road
Mr Robertson’s partner, 34-year-old Charlene Storrie, said Mr Mawhinney arrived outside her home “within two minutes” of the phone call.
She claimed to have watched the men speaking outside the house before attending to her children briefly.
She returned to find her partner lying in the road.
“He was lying unconscious.
“He had a death rattle, I thought he was going to die.
“He was bleeding from the head. It was like a hole in his head.
“There were little bits pouring out.”
Acquitted
Mr Mawhinney had driven off in his van but quickly returned.
Ms Storrie said he put Mr Robertson over his shoulder to take him inside, despite her pleading with him not to.
Mr Mawhinney then tried unsuccessfully to prop Mr Robertson up in his van.
A neighbour who is a former nurse told him to leave Mr Robertson due to the risk of causing further serious injury.
Ms Storrie alleged Mr Mawhinney said: “I’ve not done nothing.”
Following the conclusion of Ms Storrie’s evidence, Mr Harding told Sheriff Timothy Niven-Smith he would be withdrawing the indictment against Mr Mawhinney, of Elie Avenue.
He was formally acquitted of the charge, which alleged he lunged at Mr Robertson, struck him on the head with a hammer or similar, caused him to fall to the ground and rendered him unconscious to his severe injury and the danger of his life on December 11 2020 on Lossie Place.
Parliament meetings
Mr Mawhinney is currently the director of Omnis Properties Ltd and Impact Sync Ltd.
Speaking to The Courier in 2021, he described buying the office block on Dunsinane Avenue after being sacked from a firm in the same building a decade previously.
He had also previously spoken about proposals to buy and transform Dudhope Castle into a hotel, museum and hospitality academy.
Earlier in the week, the sheriff refused a motion by Mr Mawhinney’s lawyer to have the trial postponed so he could attend meetings at the House of Lords and Houses of Parliament.
He said following the acquittal: “That now means he will be able to attend his important appointments next week, having formally been acquitted of the matter.”
Solicitor Ross Donnelly replied: “He appreciates all the efforts parties went to that the matter was dealt with.”
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