The men who murdered Steven Donaldson were partners in crime from their youth, said the officer in charge of the inquiry, but there was nothing in their history to suggest they might one day carry out such a brutal act.
Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Patrick said Steven Dickie and Callum Davidson had come to the attention of officers early in the investigation.
“They were two best friends who basically did everything together: drink together, assault people together, and commit grave crimes,” he said.
However, the killing of Steven Donaldson took their actions to a level no one could have predicted.
“These are people who had a couple of convictions for violence, not a massive history, not prolific criminals to any great degree, not part of any organised crime group, so it would have been difficult for anybody to foresee what was going to take place,” he said.
DCI Patrick said the pair had attacked their 27-year-old victim before driving him to the Angus nature reserve where they killed him, using a baseball bat, a kitchen knife taken from Davidson’s house and third unidentified weapon – likely an axe or a spade – to carry out a “sustained” and “frenzied” attack.
In Saturday’s Courier: The full story of a murder that shocked a community
He said investigators had quickly gathered background on Dickie and Davidson and discovered they were best friends who were known to the police for “low level violence” and for looking out for one another.
“We looked closely at their background to identify what they may have been involved in, to see if we could build up a history or a background for the kind of people we were dealing with,” he said.
“We know they went to primary school together, they went to secondary school together, and ultimately they socialised and drank in one another’s company. And over the course of that both of them became involved in lower level violence, which was articulated in court as fights outside of licensed premises, and other general assaults.”
He said police had done “absolutely everything” to bring the perpetrators to justice as quickly as possible.
“It wasn’t a complex investigation,” he said.
“It was more about understanding the dynamics of who the key people were, initially understanding their accounts and movements, and then deploying the full force of Police Scotland to look at these accounts, pick them apart, think about the CCTV, do the house to house, speak to witnesses, do these special investigations using forensic staff and slowly but surely to pick apart holes in the key people’s accounts.
“That then shines a light on what really took place.”
He paid tribute to Mr Donaldson’s family for their “dignified” behaviour.
“It has been a heavy weight upon them. But throughout they have engaged fully with the police,” he said.
“They have been dignified. I can only imagine what they have been through over the last nine months.
He acknowledged the killing had “rocked community confidence” and said he hoped the verdict would allow people to begin to get on with their lives.
“I hope the community can be reassured now knowing that these violent individuals will be off the streets and that Police Scotland is set up to be able to investigate these major types of crimes thoroughly and bring the perpetrators to justice quickly,” he added.
