Tasmin Glass was no “Machiavellian character from the underworld of crime” but a teenager from a good home who was not responsible in “any way, shape or form” for what happened to Steven Donaldson, the Kirriemuir murder trial was told yesterday.
In his closing submission on the 20-year-old’s behalf, senior counsel Mark Stewart QC also asked the jury to reject the notion she was a “gold digger”.
And he told them the death of the Arbroath oil worker had been driven by “the oldest motive in the world – jealousy of a woman”.
Mr Stewart said: “This is a 19-year-old girl with no record of violence or any criminality.
“On what hypothesis do we assume that some like that suddenly becomes involved in an attack like that on her former boyfriend?”
He told the jury they had heard how Steven Dickie, who was in a sexual relationship with Glass, and Callum Donaldson had previously committed acts of violence against people.
“It is not just any people, and that is important in this case,” he said.
“The people they visit violence on are the current boyfriends of their ex-girlfriends, or the ex-boyfriends of their current girlfriends.”
The QC described the killing as “an act of bullying that got grossly out of hand”, adding: “Steven Dickie has been entirely destroyed by his own lies.”
The trial has heard evidence that Mr Donaldson – the father of Glass’s unborn child – was to be given a “roughing up” in a row over money she was repaying him from a car insurance settlement.
Mr Stewart asked: “How does Mr Donaldson being assaulted in any way help with her money troubles, her pregnancy or their relationship issues?
“The Crown says she was a gold-digger. How does being associated with two men who suddenly attacked him assist her with her gold-digging?”
Glass’s two co-accused have both said she fled the Peter Pan playpark as Mr Donaldson came under attack on the night of June 6.
Mr Stewart said: “If Tasmin Glass had indeed been soliciting a violent attack to be carried out by Davidson, or Dickie, or both of them, the question you have to ask is why she is there.
“Why would she not just let the attack dogs go and do the job?”
In the closing moments of his address, Mr Stewart told the jury that if they believed she was involved, the only offence it would be appropriate for them to consider would be culpable homicide.
“Tasmin Glass should not, could not be held liable for what occurred at a different location,” he said.
Trial judge Lord Pentland will deliver his charge to the jury on Thursday morning before the eight women and seven men retire to consider their verdict.
