An alleged victim of threats by two Angus men facing a murder charge said he was called a “beast, rat” and told he was “getting it” by them in various Kirriemuir incidents.
James Whyte told the High Court in Edinburgh he believed he was caught up in the situation because of his friendship with Sam Wilkie, who was involved in an on-off relationship with a girl called Nicola Matthews – who was a former partner of murder accused Steven Dickie.
Dickie, Callum Davidson and Tasmin Glass, all from Kirriemuir, are on trial over the killing of 27-year-old Arbroath oil worker Steven Donaldson, whose body was found at Kinnordy Loch nature reserve, near the Angus town last June.
Jury shown images of burned-out car and dead body as nature reserve murder trial begins
On the second day of evidence before Lord Pentland and a jury of eight women and seven men, the focus of the trial switched to other charges on the indictment faced by Dickie and Davidson, including one of behaving in a threatening manner towards Mr Whyte and Mr Wilkie between January 2014 and June 2018 by making threats, following them on foot and by car and presenting weapons at them.
Mr Whyte, 24, told advocate depute Ashley Edwards in evidence about an incident in Kirriemuir, possibly around the summer of 2016 in which he and Mr Wilkie were followed by an Audi being driven by Davidson.
When the vehicles stopped, Dickie got out of the car and the witness said: “He came to my side to try to pull the door open, I managed to pull it shut.
”When we were in The Square to start with they were putting hand gestures up and saying that we were going to get it,” he said.
He said there had also been other incidents in which abuse had been directed at himself and his friend.
Under cross-examination by Ian Duguid QC, representing Dickie, Mr Whyte said none of the incidents had been reported to police as far as he knew.
Dickie, Davidson, both 24, and 20-year-old Glass deny attacking Mr Donaldson at Kirriemuir’s Peter Pan playpark before taking him to the Loch of Kinnordy nature reserve on the outskirts of the Angus town where they allegedly set fire to the 27-year-old and his car last June.
The trial has been told oil worker Mr Donaldson died from sharp force trauma to the neck, and has already heard grim evidence of how his charred body, minus the lower legs, was found beside his burnt out BMW in the car park of the Angus reserve by staff arriving for survey work just before 5am.
The trial continues.
The charges:
The charge faced by all three accused alleges that between June 6 and 7 2018 at the Peter Pan playpark, Kirriemuir and Loch of Kinnordy nature reserve car park, they assaulted Mr Donaldson and arranged to meet him with the intention of assaulting him, and once there repeatedly struck him on the head and body with unknown instruments whereby he was incapacitated, and thereafter took him to Loch of Kinnordy where they repeatedly struck him on the head and body with a knife and baseball bat or similar instruments, repeatedly struck him on the head and neck with an unknown heavy bladed instrument and set fire to him and his motor vehicle, registered S73 VED, and murdered him.
Dickie and Davidson face four other charges including one of behaving in a threatening manner towards two men between January 2014 and June 2018 by making threats, following them on foot and in a motor vehicle, presenting weapons and acting in a threatening manner.
They are also charged with putting a kitten in a bag in Main Street, Lochore, Fife on an occasion between February 1 and May 31 2017, swinging the bag about and punching and kicking the kitten; behaving in a threatening manner towards a man in St Malcolm’s Wynd, Kirriemuir and elsewhere between December 1 2017 and February 28 2018 by following him on foot and in a vehicle, and threatening him with weapons.
Both also deny following and staring at a woman and kicking her car in Kirriemuir between August 1 2017 and April 31 2018.
Davidson faces a further charge of assaulting a man between June 1 2017 and December 31 2017 at a house in Glengate, Kirriemuir by pushing him to the floor and threatening to punch him.
Dickie is also accused of assaulting a woman at the Ogilvy Arms pub in Kirriemuir between February 1 and 28 last year by seizing her by the wrist and neck and threatening her with violence.
