A DVD used as evidence in an horrific Dundee sex attack case that was found lying in the streets of Edinburgh over a year after the trial was one of only two copies given out by Tayside Police.
The disc contains footage of the flat where Calum Cuthill subjected his teenage victim to the “terrifying and degrading” sexual assault in November 2007.
Crime scene photographers shot the footage after Cuthill’s attack on an 18-year-old girl fellow student in Dundee University student residences.
Tayside Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the DVD apparently being discarded in the Morningside area last week and have established the disc is a copy.
This means it was one of two duplicates supplied by the force to the defence and prosecution teams prior to the court case.
However, the Crown Office has claimed their copy of the disc was accounted for.
Cuthill’s lawyer during the trial was Edinburgh-based Dale Hughes, who failed to respond to numerous attempts by The Courier to contact him.
Tayside Police Detective Chief Inspector Shaun McKillop said, “We are continuing to investigate this incident and are working closely with the procurator fiscal and Crown Office on that front.
“We have ascertained that the DVD is a copy of the original DVD.”Victim left universityHe added, “These are generally provided to the prosecution and defence teams to help them prepare their cases.”
A spokeswoman for the Crown Office said, “The procurator fiscal has confirmed that there were only two copies of this DVD made and the procurator fiscal’s copy has been accounted for.
“The DVD in question was not lost by the Crown.”
Cuthill was sentenced to five years’ detention and was placed on the sex offenders register after being found guilty of preventing his victim from leaving the flat in West Park Villas, Perth Road.
The former zoology student also threatened the woman with violence and sexually assaulted her, leaving her injured.
Cuthill, from Park Terrace, Scone, denied any wrongdoing, claiming the sexual acts had been consensual, but a jury at the High Court in Dundee were unanimous in their decision.
He received his sentence at the High Court in Edinburgh, where temporary judge Sheriff Edward Bowen QC labelled the attack “both terrifying and degrading.”
His victim had to leave the university and go home after the attack.