Alleged Kinnordy killer Callum Davidson made a shop door confession to a man in Kirriemuir town centre, on the evening Steven Donaldson’s body was found, that he had been involved, jurors have heard.
Jamie Stewart told the High Court Davidson said a “baseball bat had snapped over the person’s head with one swing” and that he had gone to get rid of weapons at his grandmother’s farm near the Angus town.
From the witness box, 30-year-old Mr Stewart also told jurors 24-year-old Davidson had implicated co-accused Tasmin Glass’s dad in the sequence of events, saying he had been left to “get rid of the boy”.
Mr Stewart told the trial he became aware of a body being found at Loch of Kinnordy on June 7 and had passed the road leading to the nature reserve earlier that day, where Glass was in her car beside a police roadblock with her head “slumped over the steering wheel.”
He and his partner were then at the Co-op in Kirriemuir around 7.30pm, when they met Steven Dickie, Callum Davidson and Davidson’s girlfriend Claire Ogston.
Davidson spoke to Mr Stewart’s then partner, Kirsty Milne, and “told us he had been there when some of it had happened”.
“He went on to say that there had been a carry on up the park and the baseball bat had snapped over the person’s head with one swing and that he had punched him,” Mr Stewart told the court.
The witness said Davidson had said he “punched the boy as well and he took the weapons away to get rid of them”.
Questioned by the prosecutor over what he understood Davidson was talking about, the witness replied: “He said they, so I was presuming it was him and Steven (Dickie).”
“Did you respond?” said the advocate depute. “I’m sure I said that’s going to get you years for doing that,” added Mr Stewart.
Cross-examined by advocate Jonathan Crowe, for Davidson, Mr Stewart admitted there was a long history of feuding between his family and Davidson’s.
He denied making up the story to get Davidson into trouble. “I’m telling you what he said,” the witness told the court.
Charges faced by Glass, Dickie and Davidson
The charge faced by all three accused – Tasmin Glass, Steven Dickie and Callum Davidson – alleges that between June 6 and 7 2018 at the Peter Pan playpark, Kirriemuir, and Loch of Kinnordy nature reserve car park, they arranged to meet Mr Donaldson with the intention of harming him and assaulted him. Once there, they repeatedly struck him on the head and body with unknown instruments whereby he was incapacitated. Thereafter, they 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, then 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.
They are also charged with putting a kitten in a bag in Main Street, Lochore, Fife, during an incident between February 1 and May 31 2017, swinging the bag about and punching and kicking the kitten.
Another charge includes 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.
He allegedly pushed him to the floor and threatened 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.
He allegedly seized her by the wrist and neck and threatened her with violence.
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