Murder accused Steven Dickie has told a High Court jury how he saw his teenage lover Tasmin Glass speed off in her car from an Angus playpark as his best friend Callum Davidson “dived” through the window of Steven Donaldson’s BMW.
Dickie took to the stand at the High Court in Edinburgh for the first time on Tuesday to give his version of events on the night the trio are alleged to have killed the Arbroath oil worker.
He said a plan had been hatched between Glass and Davidson to give 27-year-old Mr Donaldson a “roughing up” for “hassling” his ex-girlfriend over insurance money for a written-off car.
It followed the conclusion of the Crown case against the trio, who are all from Kirriemuir, on the 14th day of the trial.
Tyre fitter Dickie, 24, denied knowing anything about Mr Donaldson prior to the night of June 6 last year, or taking part in the events he witnessed at the Peter Pan playpark on the Hill in the Angus town.
Dickie, Davidson and Glass all deny murdering Mr Donaldson on June 6 or 7 last year.
Closing the prosecution case, Ashley Edwards QC deleted an allegation within the main charge that they had incapacitated Mr Donaldson at the playpark before taking him to Loch of Kinnordy nature reserve.
A charge that Dickie and Davidson had put a kitten in a bag and punched and kicked it in Lochore, Fife, between February 1 and May 31 2017 was also withdrawn by the Crown.
Questioned by his counsel, Ian Duguid QC, Dickie said he had been in a sexual relationship with Glass, who was aged 19 at the time, for a few weeks prior to June last year, but it was not “full on”.
Asked if he had heard Steven Donaldson’s name before the night of June 6, or knew him to be an ex-boyfriend of Glass, he said he did not.
Prior to the events at the play park, Dickie said he had gone swimming at Cortachy with Glass, Davidson and Davidson’s girlfriend, Claire Ogston, and that Glass had been “bubbling away” in Davidson’s house.
“Callum had mentioned that this boy was giving her hassle over money,” Dickie told the trial.
He added: “As the conversation progressed I started to learn he had been seeing her.
“Tasmin was to meet him, she was going up the Hill on her own.”
The accused said he was “not bothered” about the planned encounter, but told the court: “Callum was going up to give him a bit of a roughing up, a warning to back off.”
Mr Duguid said: “Who discussed that?”
Dickie replied: “Tasmin and Callum.”
Asked about the night in question, he said Glass had dropped him and Davidson off at the Roods and they had walked up to the area of Kirrie Hill.
He told the trial Glass had not wanted the two men in her car so Donaldson did not see them.
Dickie said he saw Glass’s Vauxhall Corsa and Donaldson’s BMW sitting side by side, with the driver’s windows facing each other.
“We received a phone call from Tasmin saying to hurry up. I answered the phone and put Callum on but by that point we were only metres away, you could hear the shouting,” he told the trial.
Dickie said he did not get his phone back until around 1am the following morning.
Davidson started running towards the BMW and “lunged” in the driver’s window, he told the trial.
“I just sort of froze, just like, leave him to it,” Dickie said.
“As he dived in the window Tasmin just took off, she left, she’s away at that point.”
Dickie said the BMW then went “shooting back” and the front end spun out.
“Callum was in the car by that point, through the open window,” the accused continued.
Dickie said he was “left standing”, but did not see who was driving the car, and he then walked to Davidson’s house.
“I sat on the sofa and had a tin of Tennents,” he said, adding that Davidson returned home around an hour to an hour and a half later.
Mr Duguid asked if Davidson had discussed what had happened at Kinnordy and Dickie said his friend had told him he “had sorted the boy out and stuff like that, just that he had given the boy a hiding”.
Did you think the boy was dead?” asked the QC.
“No, not at all,” replied Dickie.
The trial continues.
The charges
The charge faced by the accused Steven Dickie, Callum Davidson and Tasmin Glass 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, 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 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.
