A man charged with murder has been accused of making a prison cell confession, boasting he had stabbed “the boy” more than 25 times.
Steven Dickie, 24, flatly denied the accusation during a second day of evidence in his own defence at the High Court in Edinburgh.
He also rejected a claim that he had offered his best friend Callum Davidson, 24, a £10,000 pay-off to take the blame for killing Steven Donaldson in Kirriemuir last summer. The pair are on trial for the murder of the 27-year-old oil worker from Arbroath, along with a third co-accused, Tasmin Glass, 20.
Prosecutors allege the trio, who are all from Kirriemuir, arranged to meet Mr Donaldson – Glass’s ex-boyfriend – at the town’s Peter Pan playpark, then assaulted him.
They are then accused of taking him to the Loch of Kinnordy nature reserve, beating him with a weapon before setting him and his car on fire. All three deny the charges.
On the 15th day of the trial, tyre fitter Dickie denied being a “determined and accomplished liar” who had told “a succession of different parcels of lies” in an effort to “throw the others under the bus”.
The trial heard Dickie admit under cross examination by advocate Jonathan Crowe, counsel for Davidson, he had assault convictions from Forfar Sheriff Court in 2016 and Perth Sheriff Court in 2017.
Dickie said he had been on remand in Perth Prison since June last year and was asked by Mr Crowe about the alleged confession to a fellow inmate.
“Did you not make certain admissions that Callum had punched the boy and you had pulled him out of the way and stabbed him 26 times?
“Did you also say you’d offered Mr Davidson £10,000 to take the blame and were you boasting to a certain extent about killing the boy?” asked Mr Crowe.
“Absolutely not,” replied Dickie.
In cross-examination, Mark Stewart, counsel for Glass, suggested to Dickie “you have spent the entire time since June 2018 telling a parcel of lies, and not just one parcel of lies, you have told a succession of parcels of lies”.
Mr Stewart asked: “Can you think of anybody right now who might be thought of as a determined and accomplished liar?”
Dickie replied: “You might be thinking that of me.”
Mr Stewart told him: “You are prepared to say anything at all about anyone at all in an attempt to get yourself out from what you were involved in with Mr Donaldson on June 6 last year.”
“No, I didn’t do it,” Dickie replied.
He was also questioned by Crown prosecutor, advocate depute Ashley Edwards. She suggested he and Davidson were “a team, working together to make people feel threatened”. Dickie said: “I’m not going to take hassle from somebody and not give them it back.”
Turning to the night of June 6, the advocate depute put it to Dickie that there had been a conversation and a phone call with Glass, with whom he was having a sexual relationship, about Mr Donaldson and that “you and Callum Davidson were to be a team again that night”.
“She said to you ‘can you sort the situation’ and you agreed?”
“No,” Dickie responded.
Dickie was also questioned about his earlier evidence that Mr Donaldson’s BMW had driven off with Davidson hanging out of the window. The advocate depute said: “He (Mr Donaldson) was fighting for his life and in order to drive him away from Kirrie Hill it needed two people, you and Callum Davidson acting as a team”.
The trial continues.
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