A tattoo artist has told a murder trial how he found a black bag in his wheelie bin, filled with what he believed were Halloween pumpkins.
Iain Fraser found the “very heavy” sack in among his recyclables.
The 43-year-old, who lives in the same block as murder accused Steven Jackson, also found a bag with some carpet inside.
Jackson, 40, and co-accused Michelle Higgins, 29, are on trial at Glasgow High Court. They deny murdering and dismembering 37-year-old Kimberley MacKenzie at Jackson’s flat in October, last year.
It is alleged they cut up Miss MacKenzie’s body and put her parts into bins at Market Street, Patons Lane, Chapel Street and at 73 William Phillips Drive.
Jackson and Higgins are also alleged to have cleaned and bleached the walls of the flat and disposed of a bloodstained rug.
Mr Fraser, who works at a tattoo shop in Montrose, told the high court that his recycling bin went missing at the end of October last year.
He later found it outside a hairdressing salon on Chapel Street.
“It was late at night and I thought I should bring the bin back,” he said. “It looked like someone had put their rubbish on top of our rubbish.
“I saw a black bin liner filled with cut-up carpet,” he said. “I didn’t think much of it, because there was a carpet discount place down the road.”
Mr Fraser said there was another black bag underneath. “I lifted it up to eye level and thought it was very heavy.
“I thought it was pumpkins, because it was that time of the year.”
He put both bags in another bin, the court heard.
Mr Fraser reported the bags the following day, when he woke to find several police vehicles outside Jackson’s flat.
Higgins’ mother Mandy Key also gave evidence. The 47-year-old, who stays in the Montrose area, said her daughter had had problems with drugs since the age of 13 and has been using heroin since she was 14.
“She was one of the most popular at school and she was very, very clever,” Mrs Key said. “She had a diploma in music. I really thought she was going to do well.
“Things changed because she had bipolar, but it wasn’t diagnosed.”
Higgins’ father Adrian told the jury that on Sunday, November 1 – five days after Miss MacKenzie died in Jackson’s flat – he received a text message from his daughter.
“Just escaped a psychopath,” she wrote. “Got with a guy I’ve been chasing for seven month good times.”
Higgins told her dad that her ex was “real crazy”, adding: “Dangerous is nae the word.”
Mr Higgins said he did not know who his daughter was referring to.
Montrose resident Lynne Grant told the court that she saw Jackson acting “shifty” near a communal bin store when she visited her mother on November 4.
Mrs Grant, 47, said: “He came in the back entrance, the other entrance to the block.”
She said he “hung around” beside the bins. “He seemed unsure. He went towards the bin area door and went through it.”
Asked by prosecutor Ashley Edwards QC about Jackson’s demeanour, Mrs Grant said: “He was different to normal. Usually if you came into the communal area he appeared desperate to get into his flat as quickly as possible.”
Mrs Grant said that while she waited to get inside her mother’s flat, she was aware of a female standing behind her.
