A police officer found a blood-stained body covered in pieces of furniture on the floor of a Dundee flat, a murder trial in Aberdeen has been told.
The officer told of the grim discovery on the first day of the trial of Matthew Pope, 22, who is accused of battering 29-year-old Michael Given to death with a piece of wood and a television set last July.
Sergeant Martin Jenkins said he and a colleague were called to Elders Court in Lochee after a report a resident had been threatening a neighbour.
Sgt Jenkins said he had gone to the flat at around 12.35am but there was no answer.
He noticed the front door of the opposite flat was ajar and had a bloodied handprint on it, and there was no answer when he knocked.
Asked by prosecutor Douglas Fairley QC to describe the scene inside the flat, Sgt Jenkins replied: “There was a male lying face down on the floor with broken furniture on his back and legs. A flatscreen TV was lying on his legs. The man’s face was resting on what appeared to be a pool of blood.”
The officer said the man was “cold to the touch” with no signs of life.
The trial also heard from Elders Court caretaker Rowena McIntosh, 45, who was on duty that evening. She said Ryan Crighton, who lived opposite Michael Given, had approached her and Paul Taylor in the Elders Court concierge office around 10.40pm.
Ms McIntosh said he appeared “agitated, frightened, angry and restless” and said Mr Given had been threatening him. She said Mr Crighton had called the police from the office and they told him to stay there until they arrived.
The trial was shown CCTV footage from 11.46pm of a man wearing a red top that both the prosecution and defence agreed was Matthew Pope entering the building.
The caretakers had subsequently investigated a “commotion” and found Matthew Pope, Ryan Crighton, a girl with red hair and another man on the third floor.
She said Pope was “very angry” and Ryan Crighton was trying to calm him down.
Ms McIntosh said: “Matthew ran back up the stairs and Ryan followed him. We heard a door bang and they ran back down the stairs. Matthew’s head was cut.”
Pope is accused of murdering Mr Given on July 20 or 21 last year by punching, kicking and stamping repeatedly on his head and body, striking him with a piece of wood with nails protruding from it, striking him with a television and inflicting blunt-force injuries to him.
He is accused of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by removing blood-stained clothing and disposing of evidence in a bin. He faces three other charges assaulting Mr Given by inflicting blunt force injuries, adopting an aggressive and threatening manner towards Paul Taylor, Rowena McIntosh and Douglas McIntyre and assaulting a man in Victoria Road, Dundee on February 10 last year.
He denies all charges.
The trial before Lord Armstrong continues.