Steven Donaldson murder trial from start to finish

After a trial which lasted 22 days, three people have been convicted of killing popular Angus man Steven Donaldson.

On Friday, May 3 a jury of eight women and seven men found Steven Dickie and Callum Davidson, both 24, guilty of murdering the 27-year-old Arbroath oil worker in Kirriemuir in last June. Co-accused Tasmin Glass, 20, was found guilty of culpable homicide.

Steven Donaldson’s battered and burned body was discovered next to his burned-out BMW at Loch of Kinnordy Nature Reserve on the morning of June 7 2018.

The murder sent shockwaves throughout the tight-knit Kirriemuir community, Mr Donaldson’s hometown of Arbroath and wider Angus.

The Courier’s chief reporter in Angus Graham Brown covered every twist and turn in the trial since proceedings got under way on April 1 2019.

We’ve compiled all our court reports from day one to day 22 below.

The charges

The charges in the trial were amended twice – on day 14 and on day 19.

The original charges facing the trio were as follows:

The charge faced by the accused Steven Dickie, Callum Davidson and Tasmin Glass alleges that between June 6 and 7 2018 at the Peter Pan playpark, Kirriemuir and Loch of Kinnordy nature reserve car park, they assaulted Mr Donaldson and arranged to meet him with the intention of assaulting him, and once there repeatedly struck him on the head and body with unknown instruments, and thereafter 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, 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, presenting weapons and acting in a threatening manner.

They are also charged with 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, by pushing him to the floor and threatening 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 by seizing her by the wrist and neck and threatening her with violence.

Two charges deleted

On day fourteen of the trial, Ashley Edwards QC deleted an allegation within the main charge that Dickie and Davidson had incapacitated Mr Donaldson at the playpark before taking him to Loch of Kinnordy nature reserve.

A charge that Dickie and Davidson had put a kitten in a bag and punched and kicked it in Lochore, Fife, between February 1 and May 31 2017 was also withdrawn by the Crown.

Further amendments

On day 19, the Crown prosecutor dropped five charges on the indictment against Davidson and Dickie.

The amended murder charge was as follows:

Tasmin Glass, 20, Steven Dickie, 24 and Callum Davidson, 24, all from Kirriemuir, face a charge of murdering Mr Donaldson at Loch of Kinnordy between June 6 and 7 2018.

It is alleged they assaulted him at Kirriemuir’s Peter Pan playpark, having arranged to meet him there, repeatedly striking him with weapons before taking him to Loch of Kinnordy, where they repeatedly struck him with a knife and baseball bat or similar and a heavy, bladed weapon and set fire to him and his car.

The jury’s verdicts on Dickie and Davidson removed the allegation from the indictment that the two men had set fire to Mr Donaldson.

Steven Donaldson, who was he?

Steven Donaldson, of Arbroath, had a successful career in the oil industry and enjoyed a passion for cars and motorcycles. He was remembered by his family as a happy man, always smiling, who was “popular amongst a large group of friends and had a good sense of humour”.

The accused

Steven Dickie, Callum Davidson and Tasmin Glass were accused of Steven Donaldson’s murder.

The court

The trial played out at the High Court in Edinburgh’s Parliament Square.

Day one: April 1, 2019

A jury in the trial of a woman and two men accused of murdering Angus oil worker Steven Donaldson has been shown graphic images of the 27-year-old lying dead beside his burned out BMW in the car park of an Angus nature reserve.

Opening evidence in the case against Steven Dickie, Callum Davidson and Tasmin Glass also revealed Mr Donaldson died from sharp force injuries to the neck, according to a post mortem report.

All three, who are from Kirriemuir, face a charge of setting fire to Mr Donaldson and his car at Loch of Kinnordy, near Kirriemuir in June last year and murdering him.

The opening stage of proceedings heard the 999 phone call made just before 5am on June 7 by RSPB warden Victoria Turnbull, who arrived there with colleagues and discovered Mr Donaldson’s fire-ravaged BMW 1 series and his body lying beside it.

Ms Turnbull told advocate depute Ashley Edwards she initially thought the burned-out car may have been an incident of fly-tipping, which had happened previously at the reserve.

“We realised there was someone on the ground. I realised the person was dead so I stepped away and started to call the police,” the witness told the trial.

She said the car was “very well burnt, there wasn’t much left”.

The jury was shown a 3D visualisation of the car park as well as 360 degree photos and aerial footage of the area containing the BMW and the body lying near one of its front wheels.

The trial, before Lord Pentland and a jury of eight women and seven men, is expected to last 18 days.

The tearful sister of oil worker Steven Donaldson has told how murder accused Tasmin Glass urged the family to “stay strong” in a message sent hours after the 27-year-old’s charred body was found beside his burned out BMW at an Angus nature reserve.

Mr Donaldson’s younger sister Lori Robertson was giving evidence on a dramatic opening day of evidence in the trial of 20-year-old Glass and 24-year-olds Steven Dickie and Callum Davidson, all of Kirriemuir, at the High Court in Edinburgh .

She recalled the last time her brother waved goodbye to her the evening before his body was found in the beauty spot car park.

The jury heard it later emerged Mr Donaldson may have been setting off for a planned meeting with his girlfriend Glass, to which she said he never turned up.

Ms Robertson said she had been staying at her parents’ home in June 2018 with her young children. Mr Donaldson also lived there.

She said they were a close family, telling the court her brother worked away from home for long periods, earning a “good salary” which had allowed him to buy cars and motorcycles, as well as two flats in Arbroath and another in Aberdeen, which he rented out.

On the evening of June 6, Ms Robertson said Mr Donaldson had been out playing in the garden with one of her children and was “fine, his usual self.”

“I remember Steven waving up and that was the last time I saw him,” she tearfully told the jury.

Ms Robertson was asked if she had met her brother’s girlfriends at the family home and said she had seen Glass there “a few times”, having originally met her in early 2018.

On the afternoon of June 7, a friend of Steven’s came to the family home to say no-one had heard of him since the previous day but they were aware from the news that a body had been found in Angus.

She said: “I spoke to the police. Police told me that if I thought he was heading towards Kirrie and was going to meet Tasmin Glass I should contact her and get her details.”

Ms Robertson made contact through Facebook Messenger that afternoon, telling the court: “She (Glass) told me that she had arranged to meet him and he didn’t turn up.”

The witness said Glass had told Mr Donaldson not to come to her house but go somewhere else. When she got there, he was not there, she had said.

“She said that they had been arguing recently. She said that when he didn’t turn up she assumed he had changed his mind or gone in a huff,” the witness added.

“She said she tried to contact him that day and hadn’t had any response, which she thought was strange.

“She said ‘Don’t cry, you need to be strong and she asked if I wanted her to come through to Arbroath and I said no.”

In another message later that day Glass said: “OK, love you all, please stay strong.”

Ms Robertson told the trial she subsequently went to identify her brother’s body.

Police officer tells trial of charred and mutilated body

Kirriemuir-based police officer PC Paul Hosking told the trial he had been in Forfar police office at 5am on June 7 when they received the report of a body being found.

He and a colleague were the first officers at the scene and he said he could see a male lying beside the burnt out car.

“He was badly charred,” the officer told the trial, adding that the man’s lower legs also appeared to be missing. The officer also noted large lacerations to the man’s back and neck.

“I went around the vehicle to check there were no other casualties,” he said.

“The registration plates were not there, I don’t know if they had been removed or were charred by the fire.”

PC Hosking said emergency protocol procedures were then immediately put in place, including an inner cordon around the car park and an outer cordon at the B951 junction in Kirriemuir which he went to man.

The opening witness of the trial told how she had come across the macabre scene of Mr Donaldson’s burned body lying beside his charred BMW in the car park of the Angus reserve just before 5am on the morning of June 7 last year.

RSPB warden Victoria Turnbull, 37, had gone to the Kirriemuir site for a bird survey and told advocate depute Ashley Edwards she initially thought the burned car might have been fly-tipped after similar problems at Loch of Kinnordy.

The witness said: “Just as we pulled into the car park we realised there was a car that had been burnt out. We had had rubbish left there before and thought it was fly-tipping.

“When we pulled in further we realised there was somebody on the ground.

“I realised the person was dead so I stepped away and started to call the police.”

The jury was show a 3D visualisation of the site, 360 degree photographic panorama and aerial footage of the car park showing the car and Mr Donaldson’s body lying beside one of the front wheels.

They also heard the brief 999 call made to police by Ms Turnbull reporting the grim discovery.

The witness said Mr Donaldson’s car was “very well burnt”.

A minute of evidence between the Crown and defence for the three accused has agreed that Mr Donaldson was the owner of a BMW 1-series, registered S73 VED, and Glass the registered keeper of an orange 13-plate Vauxhall Corsa.

It has also confirmed that Mr Donaldson died as a result of sharp force trauma to the neck, according to a post mortem examination.

The trial, before Lord Pentland and a jury of eight women and seven men, is expected to last 18 days.

Day two

An alleged victim of threats by two Angus men facing a murder charge said he was called a “beast, rat” and told he was “getting it” by them in various Kirriemuir incidents.

James Whyte told the High Court in Edinburgh he believed he was caught up in the situation because of his friendship with Sam Wilkie, who was involved in an on-off relationship with a girl called Nicola Matthews – who was a former partner of murder accused Steven Dickie.

Dickie, Callum Davidson and Tasmin Glass, all from Kirriemuir, are on trial over the killing of 27-year-old Arbroath oil worker Steven Donaldson, whose body was found at Kinnordy Loch nature reserve, near the Angus town last June.

On the second day of evidence before Lord Pentland and a jury of eight women and seven men, the focus of the trial switched to other charges on the indictment faced by Dickie and Davidson, including one of behaving in a threatening manner towards Mr Whyte and Mr Wilkie between January 2014 and June 2018 by making threats, following them on foot and by car and presenting weapons at them.

Mr Whyte, 24, told advocate depute Ashley Edwards in evidence about an incident in Kirriemuir, possibly around the summer of 2016 in which he and Mr Wilkie were followed by an Audi being driven by Davidson.

When the vehicles stopped, Dickie got out of the car and the witness said: “He came to my side to try to pull the door open, I managed to pull it shut.

”When we were in The Square to start with they were putting hand gestures up and saying that we were going to get it,” he said.

He said there had also been other incidents in which abuse had been directed at himself and his friend.

Under cross-examination by Ian Duguid QC, representing Dickie, Mr Whyte said none of the incidents had been reported to police as far as he knew.

Dickie, Davidson, both 24, and 20-year-old Glass deny attacking Mr Donaldson at Kirriemuir’s Peter Pan playpark before taking him to the Loch of Kinnordy nature reserve on the outskirts of the Angus town where they allegedly set fire to the 27-year-old and his car last June.

The trial has been told oil worker Mr Donaldson died from sharp force trauma to the neck, and has already heard grim evidence of how his charred body, minus the lower legs, was found beside his burnt out BMW in the car park of the Angus reserve by staff arriving for survey work just before 5am.

Kinnordy murder co-accused were in relationship months before death of Steven Donaldson

A woman at the centre of a love triangle involving Angus murder accused Steven Dickie learned he was in a relationship with his female co-accused Tasmin Glass just months before the killing of offshore worker Steven Donaldson.

Nicola Matthews had been a school sweetheart of Dickie, who along with Callum Davidson and Glass, is accused of murdering Arbroath 27-year-old Mr Donaldson and setting him on fire at a Kirriemuir nature reserve last June.

Dickie and Davidson also face charges of making threats against a number of people, including Sam Wilkie, to whom Miss Matthews had a child in January 2018.

She went back to Dickie while she was heavily pregnant, leaving him again after a short time — and learned soon after that he was seeing Glass.

Evidence on the second day of the Edinburgh High Court trial focused on a number of other charges on the indictment, during which the court heard from Mr Wilkie.

The 29-year-old told the court of a series of phone calls in early January 2018 in which Dickie “ended up going crazy down the phone”.

He told the trial: “He kept saying meet me, meet me at the Peter Pan playpark, then I heard Callum in the background saying ‘You’re getting killed, I’m gonna kill you’.”

Two men accused of Angus murder told alleged threat victim he was ‘getting it’

The witness said Dickie made another call the same day from Kirrie Hill in which he again heard Davidson in the background, saying: “I’ve got an axe, we’re going to find you at some point, there’s no point hiding.”

Defence advocate Jonathan Crowe, representing Davidson, put it to Mr Wilkie that he had made up the story to “heap blame on the doorstep of Callum Davidson”.

“You had put up with years of hassle. You would see that as a gilt-edged opportunity to potentially put this to bed for once and for all?” he suggested, to which the witness replied: “Certainly not”.

Miss Matthews, 24, said she was with Dickie for about four years until around 2014/15 when she started seeing Mr Wilkie.

They had an on-off relationship and she went back to Dickie during the breaks, the trial heard.

It eventually ended in late 2017, and she stayed with Dickie until the following spring, after which she learned he was in a new relationship with Tasmin Glass.

Ninewells Hospital clerical worker Miss Matthews told the trial she had heard a conversation between Dickie and Davidson in which they said they were going to “go after Sam”.

“They were going to get Sam to give a girl a lift and then Callum was going to run him off the road,” she said.

Asked by advocate depute Ashley Edwards if there had been any information about where that might be done, the witness said it was to be on Kinnordy Road, which runs past Kinnordy Loch.

She also told the court of an incident when her mother’s car was damaged and Dickie thought Mr Wilkie may have been responsible.

“He said he was going to get Sam and chop his head off. He went out, got an axe out of the back of his car and then drove off,” said Miss Matthews.

Cat owner tells trial Davidson and Dickie swung and kicked pet in carrier bag

Steven Dickie swung a kitten in an Asda bag-for-life before it was kicked by co-accused Callum Davidson after they had offered to tend for the injured animal, the second day of the Kinnordy murder trial heard.

In evidence relating to one of several other charges faced by Dickie and Davidson on the Steven Donaldson case indictment, 20-year-old Demi Young told the court she got to know both men through her friendship with Davidson’s then girlfriend after she moved to Kirriemuir.

She told the trial about an injury suffered by her pet, Milo.

“He had been outside quite a lot and got his back leg cut and it was really bad,” she told the jury from the witness box.

“Callum said he would take it up to his farm. He said he would clean it out, disinfect it and stitch it up.”

“I saw them kind of swinging the bag, Callum kicked the bag, they put it in the van and then they drove off,” she said.

“They said they would bring it back in a few days, he was just resting.”

In response to prosecutor Ashley Edwards, Miss Young said she never saw Milo again.

“They said they had let it out in the forest and it ran off.”

The trial also heard from Shona Sutherland, the mother of Sam Wilkie, who also gave evidence yesterday about what the court heard was bad feeling between him and Steven Dickie over Nicola Matthews, with whom they were both involved.

She spoke about an incident in August 2017 in which Dickie and Davidson stopped in a car in the centre of Kirriemuir and spoke to her.

“Callum Davidson had a flare for the shooting. He said he was going to throw it in a car. He said he was going to kill Sam and I just used to say shut up with this nonsense.”

The witness also told the trial about an incident last February in which a girl jumped on her in the street after she left Kirrie’s Ogilvy Arms Hotel, where Davidson and Dickie had also been.

She got the better of the girl and pinned her to the ground.

The witness said: “Steven came and grabbed me on the throat and said ‘Get off her or I’ll batter you myself, you know I will’.”

“Callum said he was going to burn my house down, well petrol bomb it was the words. I was so scared, I thought, what if he does,” said the witness, who told the trial she then went to police to report the matter.

The trial, before Lord Matthews and a jury of eight women and seven men, continues.

Day three

Witness overheard Steven Donaldson murder accused ‘plotting to write ex off the road’, court told

A witness in the Steven Donaldson murder trial gave police a statement about overhearing talk of a plan to drive a man off the road near Kinnordy Loch and dispose of any evidence in a remote Angus reservoir.

Nicola Matthews said she heard Steven Dickie and Callum Davidson talking about Sam Wilkie – with whom she had a child before returning to long-term boyfriend Dickie – who the murder accused are charged with threatening over a period of more than four years.

On the third day of the Edinburgh High Court murder trial, Miss Matthews was cross examined by Ian Duguid QC, representing Dickie, about a statement she gave to police on June 13 last year, eleven days after 27-year-old Mr Donaldson’s body was found at Kinnordy Loch nature reserve just before 5am.

Dickie and Davidson, both 24, along with 20-year-old Tasmin Glass deny murdering Mr Donaldson by attacking him and setting him on fire in early June last year.

The two men also face a number of other charges of assault and threatening behaviour.

The trial heard there was “bad feeling” between Dickie and Mr Wilkie and, in her interview, Miss Matthews told police: “I remember one time Steven and Callum came to my house, they were on about writing Sam off the road at the Kinnordy to Kingoldrum road.

“It was just Callum that was going to get a Jeep or vehicle and he would write Sam off the road. Whatever evidence they had, Callum would throw in the Backwater reservoir,” Miss Matthews told police.

Mr Duguid asked the witness: “If I’m reading this correctly you were saying it was Callum Davidson who was saying he is going to write him off the road and throw the evidence in the Backwater Dam, is that what you’re saying?”

“Yeah,” replied Miss Matthews.

“What is Steven Dickie’s involvement in all of this?”

“I can’t remember,” the witness said.

She was also asked about an incident in which a family vehicle had been damaged by paint and it was suspected Sam Wilkie had been responsible.

During earlier evidence in chief, Miss Matthews said Dickie, who was staying with her at the time, had gone to his BMW car, taken out an axe and driven off after threatening to “chop Sam’s head off”.

Questioned by Mr Duguid, she denied ever seeing an axe or weapons in the boot of the car, which she was insured to drive.

The QC asked her if she had phoned either the police or Mr Wilkie after Dickie drove off with the weapon and she said no.

“I just thought he was angry, I didn’t think he was going to do it,” she said.

Steven Donaldson ‘wanted £3,000 back’ from murder accused ex over written-off car, court hears

Oil worker Steven Donaldson wanted his former girlfriend to repay him £3,000 in a cash dispute over a written-off car, a murder trial heard yesterday.

Witness Paige Jolly, 20, said her friend Tasmin Glass had told her her ex was demanding the money shortly before he was found dead in June last year.

She was giving evidence on day three of the trial of 20-year-old Glass and 24-year-olds Steven Dickie and Callum Davidson, all of Kirriemuir, at the High Court in Edinburgh.

The three are accused of murdering Mr Donaldson, 27, from Arbroath.

Miss Jolly said Glass had confided in her about her financial difficulties with her ex.

“She said it was something to do about three grand of his money. He said he was wanting the money back and her mum was going to do it,” she said.

“She said she was going to transfer it into her mum’s account so she could give it to him. It was so she didn’t have to meet him.”

Kirrie murder accused were together at Peter Pan playpark hours before grim body find, trial hears

Another witness, Billie Malley, 20, said she had been friendly with Glass for a number of years and that Donaldson had bought her a Volkswagen Scirocco car.

Miss Malley told the trial Glass asked her for money, adding: “I knew she was due Steven money for the insurance, the insurance money for the car that had been written off.”

The trial also heard evidence from building site nightwatchman Colin Chalmers about a phone call from Callum Davidson on the night of June 6 last year asking for “back-up”.

Witness overheard Steven Donaldson murder accused ‘plotting to write ex off the road’, court told

Kinnordy murder co-accused were in relationship months before death of Steven Donaldson

He said there was a suggestion that “a boy Donaldson was coming through from Arbroath with a squad threatening someone”.

Mr Chalmers, 43, said he had known Davidson’s family for decades and had known the accused since he was a youngster.

In a statement given to police on June 10 – three days after Mr Donaldson’s body was found – Mr Chalmers said: “He (Davidson) asked if I could help him because a boy Donaldson was coming through from Arbroath with a squad threatening someone.

“I said yes, but I said I was working. He never came to my house and I never gave him any weapons.”

The court heard Mr Chalmers had a missed call at 1.47am the following day from a number he did not recognise.

It was later found to be from a phone associated with someone called Claire Ogston, who the court previously heard was Davidson’s girlfriend.

He said: “It rang out, then maybe an hour later a text message came through and said you’ll get Callum on his phone or Steven, which I thought was a bit strange because I’d never had Steven’s number.”

Questioned by Davidson’s defence advocate Jonathan Crowe, Mr Chalmers said he got the impression Davidson was “worried”.

“I’ve always told him to stay out of bother,” he added.

Kirrie murder accused were together at Peter Pan playpark hours before grim body find, trial hears

A trio of murder accused were seen together at the Angus children’s playpark where they are alleged to have attacked oil worker Steven Donaldson.

They were spotted by agriculture student Jack Elder just hours before 27-year-old Mr Donaldson’s dead body was found at a local nature reserve.

Mr Elder told the High Court he saw Tasmin Glass and Callum Davidson together in her car, with Steven Dickie alongside on his motorbike, at Kirriemuir’s Peter Pan playpark just after 10pm on Wednesday, June 6.

Mr Donaldson’s body and burned out BMW were found around seven hours later by RSPB staff arriving for work at Kinnordy Loch outside the Angus town.

In evidence, 18-year-old Mr Elder said he had gone to the playpark car park with four friends after a swim at the Reekie Linn waterfall and recognised Glass’s distinctive orange car when they pulled in.

He told advocate depute Ashley Edwards: “Tasmin’s car was in the car park. I knew of her, I wouldn’t say I was a friend.

“It was quite distinctive. Tasmin was driving, Callum Davidson was in the passenger seat and Claire Ogston was in the back of the car.”

He said Dickie was on his motorbike at the other side of Glass’s car, in his biking leathers.

Mr Elder said: “All the windows were down in Tasmin’s car and they were speaking to Steven. I thought it would be polite and I put my windows down and we had a general conversation as well.”

He was asked if there had been a discussion about their plans that night and he said he believed Dickie was going to drop his motorbike off at Davidson’s house.

Mr Elder then told the court he spoke to Dickie about his motorbike and they agreed to go out on the road.

“Tasmin left first, we were just going to go and have a race,” said the witness.

He followed Dickie out the Brechin road to a crossroads east of the town before turning round and heading back into Kirriemuir.

After Dickie turned off, Mr Elder went to Sunnyside in Kirriemuir to drop off a friend and he saw Glass’s car parked there.

He said he was certain there was only one person in the vehicle but could not see who it was.

In response to the advocate depute, Mr Elder said he had been out of Kirriemuir for around ten minutes after leaving the Peter Pan park.

Day four

Murder accused was ‘actively trying’ to get pregnant to boyfriend Steven Donaldson, court told

Angus murder accused Tasmin Glass was “actively trying” to get pregnant to her boyfriend Steven Donaldson in the weeks before allegedly killing him and setting him on fire at a local beauty spot.

Mr Donaldson had confided in one of his closest pals that he thought the then-teenager was expecting, and Glass then told the friend that she believed a baby would bring the couple close together.

The fourth day of the Edinburgh High Court murder trial proceedings against 20-year-old Glass and 24-year-olds Steven Dickie and Callum Davidson heard evidence from Martin Johnstone, 49, an offshore worker from Arbroath who described 27-year-old Mr Donaldson as one of his closest friends.

He told the jury of their shared interest in so-called boys’ toys, including cars, motorcycles and jetskis, and how they would see each other on a daily basis when they were not working offshore.

“I could trust Steven with anything,” said the witness.

He told the trial he had met Glass with Steven a number of times and said in the early part of 2017 he was sure their relationship was “100% on”.

“Steven had told me he thought Tasmin was pregnant,” he said, adding that on an occasion when the couple were at his house, Mr Donaldson had gone inside and he took the chance to “banter” with her about that.

He said: “I had said was she looking forward to being pregnant and giving birth, to try and drop him (Steven) in it.”

He told advocate depute Ashley Edwards: “Tasmin had said she was actively trying to get pregnant and that Tasmin thought it would be – she never used the word beneficial – but it wouldn’t have been a bad thing, it would have brought her and Steven closer together.”

The evidence then moved to June 7, the day Mr Donaldson’s body was found at Kinnordy Loch, and the witness said he became increasingly concerned when his friend did not respond to a number of phone calls.

Mr Johnstone added: “It went straight to his answer machine. In all the years I’ve known him he would answer his phone, it wouldn’t matter if he was in America and I was at the other side of the world.”

He then learned about a body being found near Kirriemuir and contacted Glass through Facebook Messenger.

He added: “I had the impression Tasmin was worried about something and was upset. I told her not to worry.”

Glass replied: “I hope so, I’m worried sick Marty”, followed by two sad face emojis.

The court heard of further messages between the pair, including one in which Mr Johnstone asked Glass if they had been arguing.

He said: “She said they had but it was on the telephone and nothing serious.”

He said he pressed her on that and asked her when she had last seen Steven and she told him it was “wayyy before” a motorcycling event some weeks previously.

“That is when I started thinking something wasn’t right,” said Mr Johnstone.

Glass also told Mr Johnstone Steven had been coming to see her in Kirriemuir the previous night, but didn’t turn up at the top of Kirrie Hill, and when he asked her where the body had been found she said it was “about half an hour away” from the place they had been due to meet.

“I couldn’t comprehend why this could be connected, but Tasmin wouldn’t tell me where the top of the hill was,” the witness said.

Increasingly concerned, Mr Johnstone and friends drove to Kirriemuir and came across the police cordon leading to Kinnordy.

‘I keep thinking we will wake up and this is all a nightmare’, murder accused Glass told close pal of Steven Donaldson

In a phone message the day after the discovery of Mr Donaldson’s burned and mutilated body, alleged murderer Glass told one of his closest pals she kept “thinking we will wake up and this is all a nightmare.”

She told John Ryan: “I’m devastated and completely heartbroken. I can’t stop crying, I’m absolutely heartbroken.”

Roofer Mr Ryan, 34, had been one of the friends had gone through the Kirriemuir after learning of the body find near the town, the day after he believed Mr Donaldson had gone to see Glass with the intention of ”seeing if they could make things work or just call it a day” in their relationship.

He said he had met with Mr Donaldson the night before and been told she was going to bring money due his friend for a Volkswagen Scirocco he had bought for Glass, but which she had crashed.

The witness said he got the impression that sorting out their relationship was more important that the car money to Mr Donaldson.

In answer to questioning by advocate depute Ashley Edwards, Mr Ryan said he understood the insurance had paid out more for the car than Mr Donaldson bought it for, and the arrangement was that Glass was to repay him around £2,500 and keep the rest.

“I don’t think he was bothered about that, he was more interested in her and seeing how the relationship was going to go,” said Mr Ryan. “Money never really phased him.”

Mr Donaldson had told Mr Ryan he and Glass “weren’t getting on, that he hadn’t seen her much.”

“I knew she had been due him money and she had been putting it off and off and was going to be bringing it through that night.

“He said they weren’t getting on, Tasmin was making no effort and was staying in Glasgow,” the witness told the trial.

When asked what he thought the purpose of the meeting on the night of June 6 was, Mr Ryan replied said: “To sort things out or whether they were going to leave it at that.

“To see if they could make things work or just call it a day.”

When he never heard from Mr Donaldson the following day, Mr Ryan contacted Glass and the jury heard of a string of messages between the pair, with one from the witness saying he was “mega worried”.

In one, Glass said: “I feel sick John, I wanted him to come to my house but my mum and dad didn’t know we were speaking again so I said to meet him elsewhere and I never got anything else apart from how his didn’t understand how he couldn’t come to mine.”

‘He’s left him for dead’, accused Callum Davidson said in 1am call to uncle hours before body discovery

Murder accused Callum Davidson told his uncle “he’s left him for dead” in a 1am phone call just hours after borrowing a baseball bat from him the night before Steven Donaldson’s body was found at Kinnordy Loch.

Michael Davidson also told police his nephew said he had “punched the guy a couple of times and been scratched on the nose by the boy”, but told him he had nothing to do with the discovery at the beauty spot.

Mr Davidson’s evidence was the subject of a police interview taken by Detective Constable David Budd who was the CCTV co-ordinator in the Donaldson inquiry as part of the Major Investigation Team based at Police Scotland headquarters in Dundee

The court heard of an initial statement given by Mr Davidson to police on June 11 in which he said his nephew had not been at his house on the night of June 6.

Following further inquiries, police re-interviewed 30-year-old Mr Davidson at his work in Forfar on June 27 and he made the baseball bat admission.

He told DC Budd the murder accused had come to his house sometime after 9pm on June 6, adding: “When Callum first came in I would say he was a bit agitated.

“The bother with the guy was because Tasmin was due him money. Callum said he was a loan shark but he didn’t say what the money was for.”

“Callum asked me if he could take a baseball bat that was lying at my bedroom door.

“I agreed that Callum could take the baseball bat and presumed it was linked to this guy Steven Donaldson coming through to sort Tasmin out,” Mr Davidson told police.

He then told the detective about a phone call just after 1am from his nephew.

“I remember Callum saying something like ‘he’s left him for dead’ when I asked him what the crack was,” his statement continued.

“I could hear they were in Callum’s because I could hear the dogs on the laminate floor. Steven (Dickie) was there because he was on his mobile phone.

He then said in the interview he had phoned his nephew later on June 7, adding: “Callum didn’t let on anything other than he had punched the guy a couple of times and that Callum had been scratched on the nose by the boy.”

Cross-examined by Davidson’s defence advocate Jonathan Crowe about whether Callum was speaking about himself or someone else when he said ‘he’s left him for dead’, the witness replied: “From what you’ve just read, someone else.”

Day five

Court hears murder accused hit Steven Donaldson so hard with baseball bat that it broke

A “grey and jittery” murder accused confessed he had broken a baseball bat by striking Steven Donaldson with it after he and a friend stepped into an argument involving their female co-accused at a Kirriemuir children’s playpark, a High Court jury has heard.

Steven Dickie then took a bent kitchen knife from a coat pocket shortly before co-accused Callum Davidson went back to the Peter Pan park to look for pieces of the broken bat.

Dickie and Davidson arrived back at Davidson’s house around 1am on June 7, where the latter man’s partner Claire Ogston described the men as “worried” and “jumpy”.

Dickie, Davidson and Glass all deny murdering Mr Donaldson on June 7 last year.

Giving evidence on the fifth day of the Kinnordy murder trial, Ogston said her boyfriend had come into the bedroom saying he needed to tell her something, but she “shut him down”.

Miss Ogston, who told the court she has a 12-week-old daughter with Davidson, said she thought Davidson and Dickie had “maybe beaten up” Mr Donaldson.

It came after she told the court Glass had asked her then-boyfriend Dickie to “deal with” a situation earlier that evening following an angry phone call from Mr Donaldson concerning money Glass was due him.

Asked by advocate depute Ashley Edwards about the events of the early hours, Miss Ogston said Davidson had woken her and said he needed to tell her something.

“He needed to speak to me about something, that they had gone up the Hill to meet that boy and I just kind of shut him down. I didn’t want to know,” said Miss Ogston.

Asked how Davidson seemed, she said: “Quite quiet, quite jittery.”

The witness told the court Dickie was in the shower of her house at that point but then came out.

“Steven was a very grey colour and very sort of quiet,” she said.

“He tried to tell me what had gone on and I just shut him down as well. At that point I thought they had maybe beaten him up a bit and left it at that.”

They were then alone in the kitchen and Miss Ogston said Dickie told her: “He told me that he had hit Steven Donaldson with the baseball bat.”

The advocate depute asked: “Did he say anything about Kirrie Hill?”

“Just that that’s where they met him,” replied the witness.

Miss Ogston said Dickie told her Donaldson and Glass were “having an argument, it got quite heated and that (is) when he went over and intervened.”

“He said Steven Donaldson had tried to get away from him and that he had hit him with the bat,” adding that she was told it had broken into pieces.

She said Dickie then pulled one of her kitchen knives, which was bent, from a jacket that was hanging at the door and put it on the counter.

Miss Ogston then overheard a telephone conversation between Dickie and Davidson saying that “Callum needed to look for the parts of the bat which had been broken”.

Davidson said he couldn’t find them and was on his way back to the house.

Day six

Murder accused’s car and ‘sporty’ BMW spotted near Kirriemuir play park hours before Steven Donaldson body find, court hears

A witness has told a High Court jury he saw murder accused Tasmin Glass’s car and a “sporty” white BMW together near Kirriemuir’s Peter Pan play park just hours before the discovery of Arbroath man Steven Donaldson’s battered and burnt body.

The sighting came minutes after both Glass’s Vauxhall and Mr Donaldson’s BMW 1 Series were picked up on various CCTV cameras in Kirriemuir, each following a similar route through the town within minutes of the other around 11pm.

Mechanic Alec Stewart had been parked up in the main car park at Kirrie Hill on the night of June 6 last year, watching music videos on his mobile phone.

He told the trial he saw an “awful sporty” BMW come into the car park and pass in front of him, but turn around and then leave immediately.

Minutes later, the same car re-appeared and went into the overflow car park where it illuminated an orange Vauxhall Corsa, which Mr Stewart recognised as the car owned by Glass.

Mr Stewart, 20, was giving evidence on the sixth day of the trial of 20-year-old Glass and 24-year-olds Steven Dickie and Callum Davidson, all of Kirriemuir, who deny attacking 27-year-old Arbroath oil worker Mr Donaldson, setting him on fire and murdering him on June 6 or 7 last year.

The witness told advocate depute Ashley Edwards the BMW stayed only a minute or two when he saw it for the second time going into the overflow parking area opposite where he was sitting.

Mr Stewart said it had been driving “normally” when he saw it arrive and leave the car park the first time, and then normally again when it re-appeared.

The prosecutor asked: “How about when it left?”

The witness replied: “It was speeding”, estimating it could have been travelling at 50mph leaving the car park.

Jurors were also shown a series of CCTV clips covering the period from around 10.45pm to just after 11pm on June 6, showing Mr Donaldson’s distinctive BMW 1 Series, registered S73 VED, and Glass’s Corsa taking a similar route through Kirriemuir town centre and turning up The Roods.

Agreed evidence already presented to the jury has confirmed the two vehicles as being owned by the deceased and the accused.

It has also been agreed that co-accused Callum Davidson was the front seat passenger in Glass’s Corsa at the time it was captured on CCTV.

The trial, before Lord Pentland and a jury of eight women and seven men, continues.

Mum of murder accused says daughter had nothing to do with Steven Donaldson’s death, court hears

A co-accused in a High Court murder trial told her mum she was still in love with the ex she allegedly killed, just hours on from the grim find of his beaten and burned body in an Angus nature reserve car park.

As jurors heard Tasmin Glass has given birth to a baby boy since being charged with Arbroath oil worker Steven Donaldson’s murder, her mother Wendy told an Edinburgh High Court jury there was “no way” her only child was involved in the crime.

Mrs Glass, 54, said that as rumours spread through Kirriemuir she asked her daughter in the days after the Kinnordy discovery if she had played any part in the 27-year-old oil worker’s death.

“She said no – we believed her and we still do,” freelance magazine journalist Mrs Glass told the sixth day of the Edinburgh trial against her daughter and Kirriemuir co-accused Steven Dickie and Callum Davidson.

From the witness box, the mum said she was currently looking after Glass’s 13-week old son, after her then 19-year-old daughter confirmed she was expecting in the days after Mr Donaldson was found.

Mrs Glass told the trial she had first met the Arbroath man around October or November 2017 when he came to their Kirrie home, and described things between him and Tasmin as “just a normal, happy relationship”.

In winter 2017, Tasmin moved to Glasgow to be nearer the band she was singing in and Mrs Glass said there were then “quite often arguments” between the pair.

“As far as I know it was off by Tasmin’s 19th birthday, which was on March 14,” Mrs Glass said.

“The reason I know that is we went out for Tasmin’s birthday tea and joked about how she didn’t have a boyfriend.

Asked about June 6, the day before Mr Donaldson’s body was found, the witness said her daughter had arrived home at just after 11pm and seemed like “normal Tasmin, very happy”.

She also told the court her husband, who was sleeping upstairs, did not leave their Northmuir home the whole night.

The following morning her daughter sent her a message wishing her parents a happy 30th wedding anniversary.

Around 4.30pm Mrs Glass was contacted by her daughter saying she was in the back of a police car near the road to Kinnordy, because they thought Steven Donaldson’s body had been found there.

On the way to Dundee police headquarters to give a statement, Mrs Glass tried to reassure her daughter the body would not be Steven.

“She said to me she had been supposed to meet Steven at the top of Kirrie Hill, but he wasn’t there.

“She couldn’t understand why he would be at Kinnordy, because as far as she knew he didn’t know where that was.

“She said to me ‘I think I still love him’,” the witness said.

Mrs Glass was also asked about money difficulties Tasmin had become involved in around April and May 2018 and the witness described those as “minor hiccups”.

Advocate depute Ashley Edwards then asked if, in the days following the body discovery, the witness was given information her daughter was pregnant.

The prosecutor asked Mrs Glass: “Did you speak to her?”

“Yes”

And did she confirm that?”

“Yes”, replied Mrs Glass.

Kirrie supermarket shop door confession from accused the day of body find

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.

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 that night, when they met Steven Dickie, Callum Davidson and Davidson’s girlfriend Claire Ogston.

Davidson spoke to his then partner, Kirsty Milne, and had “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,” he told the court.

Mr Stewart said Davidson had said he “punched the boy as well and he took the weapons away to get rid of them , and left Tasmin’s dad there to get rid of the boy.”

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.

“I looked at Callum, shook my head and telt my girlfriend ‘Let’s go’.”

Asked how Davidson seemed, he replied: “Pretty calm.”

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.

Day seven

Court hears murder accused told boss her unborn child was Steven Donaldson’s

Angus murder accused Tasmin Glass confided to her boss that ex-boyfriend Steven Donaldson was the father of her unborn child in the weeks before the Arbroath man’s body was found, a High Court jury has been told.

The then 19-year-old had revealed to Kirriemuir café boss Lee Wright she was pregnant, and in a police interview following the discovery of Mr Donaldson’s charred and mutilated body at the Loch of Kinnordy nature reserve near the Angus town, Ms Wright told officers Glass had previously named her former partner as the dad.

After the early signs of pregnancy began to emerge, Glass also told her employer she was not going to tell Mr Donaldson he was the father.

On the seventh day of the Edinburgh High Court murder trial of Kirriemuir trio Steven Dickie, Callum Davidson and Glass, takeaway owner Ms Wright said she had employed Glass for a number of years, firstly as a Saturday girl, and then on an almost full-time basis.

In evidence to Crown prosecutor, advocate depute Ashley Edwards, the witness told the court that in the spring of last year she had given Glass £600 after she approached her asking for a loan to repay her grandmother.

Around May, the two women had a discussion about pregnancy and Ms Wright advised Glass to take a pregnancy test, which she said was positive.

They spoke several times on the topic and she advised Glass to make appointments with midwives and doctors.

The advocate depute asked: “Did you have a discussion about whether she was in a relationship at that point?”

The witness said she understood Glass to be in a relationship with Steven Dickie.

“Was anyone else mentioned at that time?” – said the prosecutor.

She replied: “I vaguely remember asking if Steven Donaldson was the father and I was told no because she hadn’t seen him for several months.”

Ms Wright was also asked about the days immediately following the discovery of Mr Donaldson’s body on June 7 last year and said Glass had continued to work as normal.

The two women went to a Marti Pellow concert in Dunfermline on Saturday June 9 and Ms Wright told the court the accused had been “normal” that night.

In cross-examination by Mark Stewart QC, representing Glass, Ms Wright said the £600 was to be paid back through a reduction in her wages at the café.

The defence counsel then asked the witness about a statement she had given police in mid-June about the pregnancy in which Ms Wright said: “I asked if it was Steven’s, meaning Steven Donaldson, and she said yes.”

The police statement continued: “I asked her if she was going to let Steven Donaldson know, and she said no.”

Mr Stewart put it to the witness: “This was your record of what you told police at the first time of asking in June?”

The witness replied: “I had forgotten that but I remember now.”

Murder accused joked ‘boy’s car was fine to drive’ on day Steven Donaldson’s body was found

Callum Davidson told a relative “the boy’s car was a fine car to drive” on the day Steven’s Donaldson’s burnt body was found beside his fire-ravaged BMW, jurors have heard.

Teenager Kieran Howcroft said he had been “a bit gobsmacked” by the murder accused’s remark in Kirriemuir town centre.

The High Court in Edinburgh was told Davidson went on to insist his comment had been intended as a joke as rumours swept the town in the wake of the Kinnordy Loch discovery.

Forensic expert believed two people dragged Steven Donaldson across car park before setting car on fire with him partly underneath

Mr Howcroft, 18, told the trial he had spent a lot of time in the company of Davidson’s co-accused Tasmin Glass in the weeks leading up to last June, but that he had then distanced himself from her, as well as from Davidson and the third person on trial for Mr Donaldson’s murder, Steven Dickie.

He agreed with a suggestion by advocate depute Ashley Edwards that this was because he believed there was a friendship between Glass — who he was seeing at the time — and Dickie.

Mr Howcroft gave a statement to police on June 12, in which he said he had met Davidson in the town centre on June 7 and had spoken to him “because he was family” about the rumours circulating the town.

They talked about the discovery of the body at the nature reserve and Mr Howcroft told the court: “He made a brief joke but then 100% told me it was just a joke about the man’s car.”

Pressed by the prosecutor on his recollections, the witness replied: “He said something about the boy’s car being a fine car to drive.”

Mr Howcroft added: “I replied, ‘I hope you’re not being serious’ and he went ‘I’m not being serious’.”

The advocate depute asked him: “How did you feel?”

Mr Howcroft replied: “I was a bit gobsmacked.”

Asked how Davidson appeared that day, the witness said he was “absolutely fine”.

The court also heard evidence from retired opera singer Anne Marie Scrimgeour of Blairgowrie, who said she had taught Glass singing since around the age of 12.

Mrs Scrimgeour said the last time she saw the accused was on the afternoon of Thursday June 7 last year.

Glass had called to say she would be late for her weekly lesson. When asked how her pupil was, the witness said: “She seemed fine.”

Mrs Scrimgeour added: “She did say when she first came in that there had been a body found at Kinnordy and it was very upsetting that something should happen so close to home, but apart from that she was as normal.”

The court heard that the following Thursday the accused’s mother had phoned to say she would not be able to attend.

Forensic expert believed two people dragged Steven Donaldson across car park before setting car on fire with him partly underneath

Steven Donaldson’s charred corpse showed signs of being dragged across an Angus nature reserve car park before being placed into his car which was completely destroyed by fire.

A police forensic scientist told the Edinburgh High Court jury the 27-year-old’s feet and lower legs were burnt to the bone by a blaze so ferocious it left nothing of evidential value on the victim’s BMW.

Scottish Police Authority expert Louise Sonstebo said sand and gravel marks on the deceased’s lower body led her to conclude that Mr Donaldson had been hauled from the public road across the length of the Kinnordy Loch car park by two people, one holding his feet and the other his upper body.

In harrowing afternoon testimony on the seventh day of the trial, Ms Sonstebo detailed investigations she carried out at the RSPB reserve near Kirriemuir following the June 7 discovery of Mr Donaldson’s beaten and burned body beside his vehicle.

Jurors were shown photographs of a pool and splatters of Mr Donaldson’s blood on the B951 Glenisla road near the entrance to the car park.

The witness said there was a drag mark through the gravel of the car park.

Jurors were then show drone footage of Mr Donaldson’s body lying beside the front corner of his vehicle.

The witness told the court: “The nature of the fire damage to the lower limbs is such that the feet and legs had been very close to the vehicle, probably into the wheel arch area prior to the fire starting.

“The left foot of the accused was trapped under the frame of the vehicle,” she added, saying that was most likely a result of the tyres being completely burnt.

The scientist said Mr Donaldson had suffered heat damage to his clothing but it was not her opinion that he had been set on fire. She said it was more likely to be due to the close proximity to the burning vehicle.

The BMW was consumed by a blaze which could have taken half an hour to an hour to burn itself out, jurors were told.

“It was burnt completely back to the metal externally and internally,” the witness added.

She also explained to advocate depute Ashley Edwards that although the petrol tank would “flare” when the flames reached it, an explosion would be unlikely in such a situation because of the nature of the fire.

Dickie’s legal counsel, Ian Duguid QC, put it to the witness that the opinion that two people had carried Mr Donaldson was an “extraordinary suggestion” in light of the deceased’s height and weight of five foot six and around 13 stone.

Ms Sonstebo replied: “Once a body is immobile and not moving freely it is more difficult to transport.”

Under further questioning, the forensic expert also repeated her view that Mr Donaldson’s lower back and bottom had been in contact with the gravel, which was consistent with his feet and shoulders being lifted off the ground.

She said that if he had been pulled by the upper body only, two lines of contact in the gravel from the feet of the deceased would have been expected, and that was not evident in the drag mark.

Day eight

Steven Donaldson murder trial: Court hears horrific ‘defence injuries’ could have been caused by axe or machete blows

Angus man Steve Donaldson’s spinal cord was severed in two places by sharp force blows which caused his death and could have been inflicted by an axe or machete, a High Court jury has been told.

In harrowing evidence on the eighth day of the Edinburgh trial against a woman and two men accused of murdering the 27-year-old Arbroath oil worker, a forensic pathologist detailed the extent of horrific injuries found on Mr Donaldson’s charred body after it was discovered at Loch of Kinnordy nature reserve, near Kirriemuir on June 7 last year.

They included numerous deep stab wounds to his body and legs, a broken jaw and a cut across Mr Donaldson’s throat area.

Dr Helen Brownlow, of Dundee University, also told jurors that wounds which had cut both of Mr Donaldson’s hands through to the bone could have been inflicted as he was trying to protect himself.

Stab wounds on his legs might also have resulted from him pulling them up towards his torso in defence.

The Edinburgh jury had previously been given evidence confirming sharp force injuries as Mr Donaldson’s cause of death and Dr Brownlow said he had suffered blows to the back of the neck which cut through the neck bones and severed the spinal cord in two places — injuries she said would lead to immediate death.

“The wounds were complex and lie on the same plane, so they are overlapping each other,” said the witness.

“It’s possible there were more but earlier ones had been obliterated by later blows. There were at least six in this location of the body.”

She said they could have been caused by a sword, machete, cleaver or axe.

Detailing the hand injuries, Dr Brownlow told the court: “Those type of injuries could be caused by individuals putting up their hands to protect themselves from blows. We tend to refer to them as defence injuries, to try and block a strike from a blade or instrument.”

Two deep stab wounds to the victim’s torso, which were among eight found on that part of the body, punctured his lungs.

The autopsy also found eight stab wounds on Mr Donaldson’s left leg and the witness told the court: “It is possible that they may have been caused by the accused attempting to shield himself from blows.

“In previous cases I have seen victims trying to pull their knees up towards their torso to protect themselves from sharp force injury.”

Blood on alleged killer’s t-shirt was ‘billion to one’ match of deceased Steven Donaldson’s DNA

Angus man Steven Donaldson’s blood was found on a t-shirt belonging to one of his alleged killers, a High Court murder trial has been told.

A forensic scientist said the odds of DNA taken from Callum Davidson’s garment being from someone other than Mr Donaldson were a billion to one, and could have landed on the t-shirt as drops of wet blood from a weapon being swung.

Scottish Police Authority expert Sarah Milne also concluded from investigations carried out at Loch of Kinnordy nature reserve, near Kirriemuir, that blood trails found there were consistent with Mr Donaldson running through the car park, being attacked near its entrance and then dragged back to his car before being hit again prior to it being set on fire.

The trial’s eighth day heard the handlebars of Davidson’s mountain bike and part of a broken baseball bat also contained blood DNA from the deceased, as well as Davidson.

Under questioning by advocate depute Ashley Edwards, the witness spoke about blood found along the edge of the car park, which she concluded could have been consistent with dripping from someone who was bleeding.

A pool of blood and a piece of tissue was found on the road at the entrance to the car park, as well as blood on the grass verge there.

The witness then said there was a “drag mark” of blood from a heavy area of staining at the entrance and through the middle of the car park to beside Mr Donaldson’s burnt out BMW at its far end.

All of the blood samples matched the DNA profile of the deceased, the court heard.

In her forensic report conclusion, the witness said: “The blood pattern and distribution in the car park could be explained if Steven Donaldson had travelled the length of the car park whilst bleeding, if he had been assaulted at the entrance and then dragged up the car park whilst bleeding and placed at the car before the vehicle then being burnt.”

A laboratory examination of Davidson’s t-shirt revealed the blood spots at its base, which the witness said may have indicated something else was being worn over the top of it.

She added: “You have spots of blood there so the back of the t-shirt had been in close proximity to a source of wet blood that has been subject to a force.”

The advocate depute asked if the spots could have come from a weapon, to which the witness replied: “Yes”.

Jurors head the forensic report suggested a possible explanation that the blood may have come to be on the t-shirt if Davidson had used the baseball bat while repeatedly striking Mr Donaldson as alleged.

The trial also heard from consultant neuropathologist Dr William Stewart, who said an examination of Mr Donaldson’s brain had revealed bleeding around it consistent with a direct impact of reasonable force.

He said the signs were “absolutely typical” of being struck by an object.

The organ was also examined for indications of neurological changes which might indicate how long Mr Donaldson had survived from the time the brain injury was sustained to the point of death and the witness said it was “short”, probably less than an hour.

Day nine

Steven Donaldson murder trial: Forensic expert quizzed on blood spot DNA

Murder trial jurors have been told alleged killer Callum Davidson could have been within “one to two metres” of Steven Donaldson for spots of his blood to transfer to a T-shirt being worn by the accused.

The day after Edinburgh High Court heard blood spot DNA found on Davidson’s garment was, at odds of more than a billion to one, that of the 27-year-old Arbroath oil worker, a forensic expert was cross-examined on the report she compiled at Kinnordy Loch car park, where the deceased was found in the early hours of June 7 last year.

Davidson, Steven Dickie and Tasmin Glass all deny murdering Mr Donaldson.

Questioned by Ian Duguid QC, counsel for Dickie, forensic scientist Sarah Milne, of the Scottish Police Authority based in Dundee, was asked about the likely proximity of Davidson to Mr Donaldson for blood to transfer to him.

She said blood spots were measured to determine how close a person was to a force of dispersal and in terms of the size of spotting in this case she would estimate 1-2m from the source.

Mr Duguid also asked the witness about forensic tests carried out on his client’s Suzuki motorcycle, his bike leathers, crash helmet and gloves.

She confirmed that no trace of Mr Donaldson’s DNA was found on any of those items.

Advocate Jonathan Crowe, for Davidson, put it to the witness that if Dickie had taken a shower then any DNA traces would have been removed, and Ms Milne agreed that was the case.

The trial also previously heard Mr Donaldson’s blood DNA was found on the handle of a baseball bat and the grips of a mountain bike which also contained Davidson’s DNA.

The advocate suggested: “Mr Davidson could have got blood on his hands by working in the area in the car park where Mr Donaldson’s blood was, without going near Mr Donaldson?”

The witness agreed that was another possible explanation for the transfer.

“There are lots of imponderables, lots of unknowns?” he asked.

“Yes, there is,” said the witness.

Steven Donaldson murder trial: Investigator describes 40 metre drag mark leading to where body was found

A specialist road traffic collision investigator who carried out a survey of the Kinnordy Loch car park has spoken of a 40-metre drag mark to where Steven Donaldson was found beside his burnt-out car.

Perth-based PC Stewart Copeland went to the Angus nature reserve two days after the early hours discovery of the Arbroath man’s body, as part of the major investigation.

He told the jury at Edinburgh High Court on Thursday he used a laser scanner, similar to that used by construction engineers, from several points in and around the car park to build a 360 degree view of the scene.

Asked by advocate depute Ashley Edwards about the drag mark which the jury has heard was found running from the car park entrance to the deceased’s burnt-out car, the witness said it was “quite distinctive” and had left a “furrow” behind it.

He told the court it was 62 centimetres at its widest point.

“It was a uniform mark, like one item being dragged across a surface rather than trailing items,” said Mr Copeland.

“To leave that kind of mark it would be a solid rounded item, with no sharp edges protruding from it.

“There was nothing apparent at all of any trailing. If the body was being dragged with any other element trailing I would expect to see other marks.”

Taking into account the space covered by the burnt-out BMW, the witness said the length of the drag mark was some 40 metres.

He also told the court he and a fellow investigator had noticed a tyre mark, which they believed had been left after the drag mark was created.

It was one of four marks found at the site, with the others believed to belong to police vehicles which had been first on the scene.

The witness said the mark was a 1.8 metre acceleration mark in the gravel, 21 centimetres wide.

He said it could have been a wheelspin mark from a motorcycle.

Questioned about the direction of travel, he said: “The vehicle was accelerating from the centre of the car park to the exit.”

Under cross-examination by Ian Duguid QC, defending Steven Dickie, the investigator was asked if there was any evidence that, if it was a motorcycle, it had been driven anywhere else in the car park.

Mr Copeland replied: “The only evidence of any vehicle that has caused that mark is that mark itself.”

The defence counsel suggested a scenario of someone driving down the adjacent road and into the car park, seeing the burning vehicle and then driving out again and asked if that was a feasible explanation for the mark.

“Yes it is,” replied the witness.

Prosecutor Ashley Edwards suggested she expects to reach the end of the Crown case in the middle of next week.

The trial, before Lord Pentland and a jury of eight women and seven men, is scheduled to last 18 days in total.

Day ten

Steven Donaldson murder trial: Accused seen on ‘leisurely’ Kirrie town centre bike ride at 2am on day body was found

Murder accused Callum Davidson was seen riding his bike at a “leisurely pace” in Kirriemuir town centre less than three hours before Steven Donaldson’s beaten and burned body was found at a nature reserve near the town, High Court jurors have heard.

A police CCTV expert said a camera picked up Davidson travelling along Reform Street two minutes before 2am on June 7 last year.

PC David Budd, who was the CCTV co-ordinator in the Donaldson inquiry, also told the trial he believes two of the accused were seen on camera in a car having a “debate” over which route to take to Kirriemuir Hill on the night of the alleged killing.

Under questioning by Crown prosecutor, advocate depute Ashley Edwards, Mr Budd was asked how Davidson looked on the mountain bike.

“It’s a leisurely pace I’d say,” he replied.

“He is moving from side to side on a bike, not in a hurry.”

On the tenth day of evidence, the court also heard accused Tasmin Glass and Callum Davidson were captured at 11pm in Glass’s Vauxhall Corsa, coming up to a junction close to Davidson’s home.

Mr Budd said arm movements in the car led him to the view that the pair were deciding which way to turn at the Elm Street junction with Kirrie’s Brechin Road.

Jurors were also shown a clip of two people walking in the area of Kirrie Den half an hour after midnight the following morning.

They have already been presented with a joint minute of agreement detailing movements of Glass’s orange Corsa and deceased Mr Donaldson’s white BMW 1 Series on various streets in Kirriemuir on the evening of June 6 last year.

The 27-year-old’s charred and badly beaten body was found at Kinnordy Loch nature reserve on the outskirts of the Angus town just before 5am the following morning.

Referring to a CCTV clip of Glass’s car – with her driving and Davidson in the front passenger seat – from the Brechin Road junction recorded just after 11pm, Mr Budd said: “It stops at the junction.

“From what I can see there is a discussion, there are some hand movements, to make it clear you can turn right to go to Kirrie Hill or go left. It looks like there is some sort of debate.”

The car turned left at the junction and was then picked up in other Kirriemuir streets, including by a camera close to Glass’s home heading in the direction of Kirrie Hill.

The court was then played a 00.36 hours CCTV clip from a private property in the vicinity of Tannage Brae.

Mr Budd said it showed two figures emerging from the area of Kirrie Den and then walking in the direction of the Kirrie health centre car park.

“They appear to be following each other,” he told the court.

The advocate depute asked: “Were you able to distinguish anything more on where those figures went?”

The witness replied: “There is only one option there and it is up the steps to the one-way system.”

Murder accused told police he was watching Family Guy and drinking beer at home on night Steven Donaldson died

Murder accused Callum Davidson told police he was at home drinking beer and watching TV comedy Family Guy at the time he is alleged to have taken part of the killing of Steven Donaldson.

On the 10th day of an Edinburgh High Court trial into the death of the 27-year-old oil worker from Arbroath, jurors were read parts of the first witness statement Davidson gave to police in connection with the inquiry.

Davidson’s statement was taken at his home in Kirriemuir’s Marywell Brae at 1.30am on June 8 – less than 24 hours after Mr Donaldson’s body was found beside his burnt-out car at a nature reserve on the outskirts of Kirriemuir in the early hours of June 7.

The trial had been shown CCTV footage of Davidson with co-accused Tasmin Glass and Steven Dickie, as well as Davidson’s girlfriend, Claire Ogston, in Kirriemuir town centre on the evening of June 6, before they headed out of the town to go swimming in the river at Cortachy.

Dickie was on his Suzuki motorbike and Davidson, Glass and Miss Ogston were in Glass’s Vauxhall Corsa.

In his police statement, Davidson said he and Dickie had picked up beer from Dickie’s home when they returned to Kirriemuir.

“We must have got back here about 10 o’clock,” the statement said.

“Tasmin dropped us at Steven’s and then left.

“She didn’t say where she was going. There was no mention of her meeting anybody.

“I have no idea where she went after dropping us off, I have not seen her since,” Davidson told police.

His statement continued: “After going back to mine we just sat in the living room with Claire, watching Family Guy, which finished about 12 so I think I went to bed about half 12.

“I am sure it was a repeat of Love Island that was on when I went to bed.”

He said co-accused Dickie slept on the couch but was gone by the time he got up the next morning, around 9.30am.

In the statement Davidson said he was aware of the grim discovery at the Loch of Kinnordy nature reserve, adding: “I was not up in that area where the body was found on Wednesday or the early hours of Thursday.

“I did speak about the body being found with Steven (Dickie) but I have no idea who it might be and I have no information about it.

“I haven’t seen Tasmin since she dropped us off at Steven’s to pick up the beers.”

NO COURT ON MONDAY APRIL 15

Day 11

Accused Tasmin Glass says former boyfriend Steven Donaldson failed to appear after arranging to meet in late-night texts

Angus murder accused Tasmin Glass told police she had sent a text to ex-boyfriend Steven Donaldson saying “Meet you Hill” on the night of his alleged killing, but he failed to turn up for the rendezvous at the Kirriemuir playpark near her home.

On the eleventh day of evidence at the High Court in Edinburgh, jurors were also told co-accused Callum Davidson said: “I think youse are far fetched” when told by a detective he was being charged with the murder of the Arbroath 27-year-old.

Glass, Davidson and Steven Dickie, all from Kirriemuir, deny murdering oil worker Mr Donaldson on June 6 or 7 last year by attacking him and setting him and his car on fire.

Detective Constable Nicola Annan, who was part of the Major Investigation Team (MIT) in the case told the court of witness statements given by Glass, then 19, on three occasions between June 8 and June 14.

Glass told police she and Mr Donaldson had split up in April last year, and despite requests from him to get back together she had then started seeing co-accused Dickie.

She told police she and Mr Donaldson had a text row on June 5, adding in her statement: “It was like he was trying to belittle me.”

On June 6, she pretended to him that she was still in Glasgow, where she had a flat, but then sent him a text at 10.25pm saying: “Meet you Hill”, relating to Kirrie Hill.

In her statement she said she received a brief call from Mr Donaldson at 10.45pm saying he was on his way.

Her statement continued: “I had Steven’s belongings in the car in a bag and was going to give them to him if things didn’t work out.”

Glass added: “When I got there he wasn’t there. I just went home. I thought Steven was playing games with me.”

The trial heard Glass describe Dickie in a witness statement as jealous and protective, fearing he would “go mental” if he saw Mr Donaldson’s name coming up on her mobile phone.

She also told police she was around twelve weeks’ pregnant at the time the inquiry into Mr Donaldson’s death was ongoing, naming him as the father but adding that he was unaware of that and she had a termination planned for two weeks later.

Another member of the MIT, Detective Sergeant Scott McGeechan, said he had gone to Peel Farm, near Lintrathen, just before 5pm on Thursday June 14.

“We went to arrest Callum Davidson on suspicion of murder,” the officer told the court.

When cautioned, Davidson replied: “I think youse are far fetched with this.”

Davidson was then taken to Dundee police headquarters and charged with Mr Donaldson’s murder at 4am on June 15, having made no comment during an hour-long interview, the court heard.

Steven Donaldson murder accused told police: ‘I never touched the boy’

Steven Dickie told police: “I never touched the boy” in a five-and-a-half hour police interview which ended in him being charged with the murder of Steven Donaldson.

As the trial of Dickie and co-accused Callum Davidson and Tasmin Glass entered its third week at the High Court in Edinburgh, the jury of eight women and seven men were played a lengthy recording of his interview with detectives at police headquarters in Dundee.

The session stretched into the early morning of June 15 last year – eight days after the discovery of the 27-year-old oil worker’s body at Kinnordy RSPB nature reserve.

On the recording, Dickie was asked about the night of June 6 and said he had walked to Kirrie Hill, where he saw co-accused Davidson “lunge” into Mr Donaldson’s white BMW in the car park.

When questioned about how he felt, Dickie said: “Sick”.

He told police Davidson drove off in the car, but he denied being personally involved and said he had watched from a path near the playpark, before walking back to Davidson’s home where he slept on the couch all night.

Asked by police who had hit Mr Donaldson, Dickie said: “I never touched him. Use your imagination.”

Detectives pressed him to say who it was and he replied: “I can’t do it, I’m not doing that.”

He was asked: “Was it a trap that went badly wrong?”

Dickie replied: “Yeah.”

He told police Davidson had taken Mr Donaldson to Kinnordy, but that he only learned that when his co-accused returned home during the night.

“He used some sort of bat thing with something sharp on the end of it,” he added.

Asked further about his involvement at Kinnordy, he told police: “I never laid a hand on him.”

When asked “Why are you still covering for him? (Davidson)”, Dickie replied: “Because he’s my best friend.”

Detectives said: “He (Davidson) is a bully. Do you think he would do the same for you?”

“I don’t know,” the accused said.

The court heard Dickie and co-accused Glass were involved in a physical relationship at the time of the alleged killing, and had sex days prior to the discovery of Mr Donaldson’s body at the rural beauty spot.

Dickie denied a suggestion that Glass had said he was jealous, insisting: “I’m not. It’s only been a few weeks. It’s far too early for all that.”

When asked by police what he was scared of, Dickie replied: “Just everything. I don’t want to go to jail.”

He was charged with the murder of Mr Donaldson just before 5.30am and responded: “I understand the charge. I did not murder him. I did not hit him.”

Day 12

Steven Donaldson murder trial: ‘I know for a fact Tasmin put him up to it’ Glass boyfriend co-accused told detectives

Murder accused Steven Dickie told detectives: “I know for a fact Tasmin has put him up to it” during a lengthy interview which led to him being charged in connection with the killing of Arbroath man Steven Donaldson.

Dickie was questioned for more than five hours at Dundee police HQ, a week on from the discovery of 27-year-old Mr Donaldson’s body at Loch of Kinnordy RSPB reserve, near Kirriemuir.

Dickie, Callum Davidson and Tasmin Glass all deny murdering Mr Donaldson by attacking him and setting fire to him and his car on June 6 or 7 last year.

On the 12th day of the Edinburgh High Court trial, a police witness was cross-examined about the interview he and a colleague conducted with Dickie, which ran into the early hours of June 15 when Dickie was charged with Mr Donaldson’s murder.

Sergeant Nicolas Searle agreed with a suggestion by defence advocate Jonathan Crowe, counsel for Davidson, that in the initial stages of the lengthy interview, Dickie was being “flippant and somewhat disrespectful” towards the police officers.

“He wasn’t taking things seriously,” Mr Searle told the court.

The officer agreed that in his interview, Dickie said he saw Davidson lunge through the window of a white car parked at Kirrie Hill, but he did not see Davidson hit Mr Donaldson, and did not know where the BMW had gone from the car park.

The witness was also referred to a point in the statement when Dickie was asked about calls from Tasmin Glass, including one just after 11pm on June 6.

Dickie told police in the interview: “I maybe phoned her to find out what the **** was going on, I don’t think she answered.”

Mr Crowe asked: “Did it cross your mind that Mr Dickie might have an interest in protecting himself with some of the things he was telling you?”

“Yes,” replied the witness.

Under cross-examination by Mark Stewart QC, counsel for Glass, the police witness was referred to the part of the interview in which Dickie said: “I know for a fact Tasmin has put him up to it.”

Asked by police what he meant, Dickie replied: “He wouldn’t go up on his own back.”

Mr Stewart asked the witness: “You asked him, do you have proof of that, and he said no?”

Mr Searle confirmed that was the interview response from the accused.

Re-examined by advocate depute Ashley Edwards, the officer agreed Dickie had been asked if he had heard any conversation relating to that part of the statement and he told police he could not provide any further details.

Murder trial hears of ‘Meet me up the hill or not at all’ message from Tasmin Glass to Steven Donaldson

Kirriemuir murder accused Tasmin Glass sent ex-boyfriend Steven Donaldson a phone message telling him: “You either meet me up the hill or not at all” the night before his mutilated and burned body was found near the town.

The jury at the High Court in Edinburgh was also told an internet search for a two-foot “cold steel machete” was found in the browsing history of co-accused Callum Davidson’s phone.

It followed a search for “whepons” in the days before Mr Donaldson’s death.

Glass and Davidson and a third co-accused from Kirriemuir, Steven Dickie, are all on trial for the murder of the 27-year-old oil worker from Arbroath.

On the 12th day of the trial, the court heard iPhone messages between Glass and Mr Donaldson had ended shortly after 10.30pm on June 6 last year.

At 9.29am the following day, around four-and-a-half hours after the discovery of Mr Donaldson’s body at Kinnordy Loch nature reserve, Glass sent another message saying: “Are u okay? Not heard from you and I’m getting worried now.”

Detective Constable Stewart Woodhouse told the court he carried out a digital forensic examination of phones belonging to all three accused, as well as another owned by Davidson’s girlfriend, Claire Ogston.

Jurors heard a “data dump” was completed on Glass’s iPhone 7 and a series of messages were recovered from early on the day of June 6.

In the initial stages of the exchange, Mr Donaldson had sent a message saying: “It’d be different if you were up here. Then we could have an actual relationship and everything else.”

The messages resumed just after 6.30pm and Mr Donaldson asked Glass: “You bringing my money.”

She replied: “I’m bringing everything, that ok?”

“So it must be over then, yeah” responded Mr Donaldson.

At around 10.22pm Glass sent a message saying: “Up the hill then”.

She said she did not want Mr Donaldson to go to her house because her parents would be in bed.

At 10.37pm, following further exchanges, she sent him a message saying: “You either meet me up the hill or not at all.”

DC Woodhouse said data from Davidson’s iPhone 6 had revealed a series of phone calls from 7am on the morning of June 7 from Steven Dickie and Claire Ogston.

Some were missed, but one was a six-minute call to his girlfriend’s number.

He said a search of Davidson’s web history from 10pm on May 29 had revealed the term “whepons”.

Results associated with it included a link to the Wish.com website with the details Cold steel Latin D Guard machete 24”.

He told Crown prosecutor, advocate depute Ashely Edwards: “The search term would bring up a list of results.

“It would indicate that particular page has been visited.”

Full text dialogue between Tasmin Glass and Steven Donaldson from June 6 2018

The Edinburgh High Court jury was given the full iMessage dialogue between Tasmin Glass and her ex-boyfriend Steven Donaldson from early on June 6 2017.

Glass had indicated to Mr Donaldson she was still in Glasgow, but the court previously heard she had been working in Kirriemuir that day before going swimming with co-accused Steven Dickie, Callum Davidson and his girlfriend Claire Ogston.

The messages read:

Steven Donaldson: Can’t wait to see you.

Tasmin Glass: I’ll let you know.

SD: You’re meant to say you too.

TG: I meant to Steven, but I’m not being a **** but I’m not pushing anything, I’ve explained that.

SD: It’d be different if you were up here. Then we could have an actual relationship and everything else.

The messages resumed from around 4.30pm.

SD: You wanna go somewhere so we can chill?

TG: So we can speak.

At 6.38pm.

SD: Meet in Forfar?

TG: I’m not away to come through there late.

SD: Ok, I’ll come to you.

You bringing my money.

TG: I’m bringing everything, that ok?

SD: So it must be over then, yeah.

TG: Not saying that but if we argue u can have all your stuff back.

SD: Oh right.

Have you told her you’re coming to see me.

TG: No, not yet.

Well Steven, you kind of can’t expect me to be okay with all this arguing.

SD: Well you can’t expect me to be okay with not knowing what’s happening with us either.

10.22PM.

TG: “I’m nearly there mum’s not happy going out again so I’ll see you tomorrow night, what time suits you.

SD: Na not leaving it will be there soon.

TG: Up the hill then. Ur not coming to mine.

SD: Why not? Are you telling her your coming to speak to me?

TG: Nah and mum and dad will be in bed so its not fair on them. Meet u hill.

SD: What you mean it’s not fair on them?

TG: Taking folk in the house when they’re in bed.

SD: It’s only me.

TG: Yeah but I’ll meet you up the hill.

You either meet me up the hill or not at all.

The following morning, June 7 at 9.29am, Glass sent Mr Donaldson another message.

TG: morning are u ok? Not heard from you and I’m getting worried now x

Day 13

Experts faced with 4,000 pages of text from messages between Steven Donaldson and Tasmin Glass

Data recovered from murder accused Tasmin Glass’s mobile phone as part of the Steven Donaldson inquiry included 4,000 pages worth of text messages between the former lovers.

The 13th day of the Edinburgh High Court trial into the alleged murder of 27-year-old Mr Donaldson in early June began with the cross-examination of cybercrime detective Stewart Woodhouse following earlier evidence of messages sent and received by the three accused in the case.

Steven Dickie and Callum Davidson, both 24 and Tasmin Glass, 20, all from Kirriemuir deny murdering Mr Donaldson by attacking him and setting fire to him and his car on June 6 or 7 last year.

Cross-examined by Mark Stewart QC, legal counsel for Glass, Mr Woodhouse agreed the huge amount of data recovered from his client’s mobile phone would have stretched to 19,000 pages if printed out.

Mr Stewart added: “Approximately 4,000 pages of that would relate to messages between Tasmin Glass and Steven Donaldson, would that sound about right?” asked Mr Stewart.

“From experience of previous cases it is entirely likely that is the case,” the witness replied.

The pair turned to a message exchange between Glass and Mr Donaldson on the night before the Arbroath man’s body was found at Loch of Kinnordy nature reserve.

The court has previously heard Glass sent Mr Donaldson a message saying: “You either meet me up the hill or not at all”, in that conversation.

Mr Woodhouse agreed it became apparent Mr Donaldson was “not content” to leave a meeting between the pair until the following day.

Mr Stewart said: “Far from trying to arrange a meeting with Mr Donaldson, she (Glass) is, on one interpretation, trying to put off the meeting?”

“Yes,” replied the witness.

“Reading this, Mr Donaldson had no difficulty in understanding what hill they were talking about and where the hill was?” Mr Stewart asked, to which the witness responded: “That’s correct, yes.”

Under questioning by advocate Jonathan Crowe, counsel for Davidson, Mr Woodhouse was asked about the search term “whepons” which had been found on the browsing history of the accused’s mobile phone.

“What the jury have been presented with here is that it may appear relatively sinister. You would agree that there would be illegitimate and legitimate reasons for being interested in machetes?”

The witness acknowledged that would be the case.

He was also asked if the search of Davidson’s phone had also revealed terms associated with agriculture and forestry, including coppicing saws, chain saws and brush cutters, but said he could not recall that.

Steven Donaldson murder trial: Cell site expert tells trial of deceased and accused’s phones moving around fringes of Kirriemuir

Mobile phones belonging to Steven Donaldson, his alleged killer Steven Dickie and the partner of co-accused Callum Davidson were tracked moving around the outskirts of Kirriemuir in the hours before the 27-year-old’s body was discovered, a court heard yesterday.

An expert told the jury in the murder trial that the phone of the third co-accused, Tasmin Glass was also operating in the same mast area as that of Mr Donaldson on the night of June 6 last year.

Cell site engineer Greg Robinson told the High Court in Edinburgh the devices could have been in the vicinity of Kirriemuir’s Peter Pan playpark.

Prosecutors allege that Glass, Dickie and Davidson arranged to meet Mr Donaldson at the park then assaulted him, before taking the Arbroath offshore worker to the nearby Loch of Kinnordy nature reserve, hitting him with other instruments and setting fire to him and his car.

On the 13th day of the trio’s trial, jurors heard Mr Donaldson’s mobile may have suffered an “abnormal” power down between midnight and 3am on June 7 — just hours before RSPB reserve staff found his charred and beaten corpse beside his BMW.

Mr Robinson said he had been asked to analyse a number of phones linked to the inquiry as well as “locations of interest” in the investigation, including the homes of all three accused, the Kirrie play area and the nature reserve.

He told Crown prosecutor, advocate depute Ashley Edwards, that cell site analysis could not pinpoint the exact location of a mobile phone or who was operating it, but it was possible to determine the approximate area from mast data.

He said Dickie’s device was operating in the Kirriemuir area around 11pm on June 6, before showing movement to the north and then around the fringes of the town, consistent with cell sites serving Kinnordy Loch.

Mr Donaldson’s phone also showed movement north from Kirriemuir, he added.

In the minutes leading up to midnight, there was a possibility it was at Kinnordy Loch due to cells it was connecting with, the trial heard.

The witness said the last activity associated with Mr Donaldson’s phone was at 3.01am in a cell area consistent with it being at Kinnordy Loch.

He was also quizzed by the advocate depute about analysis of a mobile belonging to Davidson’s girlfriend, Claire Ogston, between 1am and 2am on June 7.

Asked if the data was supportive of someone cycling to Kinnordy Loch, Mr Robinson replied: “The mobile phone has the potential to be in and around the area surrounding Kirriemuir at this time, that would be a possibility.”

In cross examination, Ian Duguid QC, for Dickie put it to the witness: “It looks as if Claire Ogston’s mobile phone is on the move at 1.36, is that right?”

“Yes,” replied the witness.

Under questioning by Mark Stewart QC, counsel for Glass, the witness agreed that while cell site data could provide information about mobile phones co-locating in the same area, it could not say whether they were together at the time.

At the close of proceedings ahead of the Easter weekend break, it was also indicated to the jury that the Crown case is scheduled to conclude early next week.

There is a likelihood that defence evidence in the following days will take the trial into a fifth week.

Day 14

Steven Donaldson: Murder accused’s phone travelled nearly 4km in early hours before body find

A murder accused’s mobile phone covered almost 4km in just 47 minutes shortly after midnight on the day Steven Donaldson’s battered and burned body was found at an Angus nature reserve, High Court jurors have heard.

The distance data was gleaned from a health app on Steven Dickie’s mobile phone which an expert told the Edinburgh trial also showed an elevation gain around 11pm consistent with that for the route between the accused’s Kirriemuir home and the town’s Peter Pan playpark.

Dickie, Callum Davidson and Tasmin Glass all deny murdering 27-year-old Mr Donaldson on June 6 or 7 last year, with the trial now into its fourth week.

On the 14th day of evidence, analyst co-ordinator Diane Campbell also agreed that a possible explanation for phone and service provider data on Dickie’s phone not matching up could be that call and text records had been manually deleted on the device.

Miss Campbell told the court that health app data had been examined from three mobile phones, those of accused Dickie and Glass and another belonging to Claire Ogston, the girlfriend of third accused Davidson.

Dickie’s phone showed data peaks in the period from around 11pm to 11.10pm, when 416 metres was covered in nine minutes.

Between 15 minutes past midnight and a quarter to one on June 7, the accused’s phone then recorded a distance of 3.9km in 47 minutes.

The witness told the court that between 1.19am and 1.39am, the phone belonging to Ogston showed a distance recording of 962 metres.

The jury has already been shown CCTV from Kirriemuir which captured Davidson cycling through the centre of the town in the early hours.

Miss Campbell also told the trial she had overlaid data for significant locations within the inquiry, including the Peter Pan park, Kinnordy Loch nature reserve – where the deceased was discovered – and the homes of the three accused, with the health app data and CCTV timings from clips obtained as part of the murder inquiry.

She said that at 12.49am, the mobile app data coincided with a CCTV recording of two figures walking in the area of Tannage Brae near Kirriemuir health centre, footage of which the jury saw earlier in the proceedings.

Advocate depute Ashley Edwards QC also asked the witness about log data on Dickie’s phone.

Miss Campbell confirmed service provider records did not match what was on the handset.

“There was no log of calls or messages sent or received. You can go in and delete messages, you can do whatever you like,” said the witness.

Murder co-accused takes to the stand to give version of events from night of Steven Donaldson’s death

Photos of accused used for first time/charges amended

Callum Davidson (left), Steven Dickie (middle) and Tasmin Glass (right).

Murder accused Steven Dickie has told a High Court jury how he saw his teenage lover Tasmin Glass speed off in her car from an Angus playpark as his best friend Callum Davidson “dived” through the window of Steven Donaldson’s BMW.

Dickie took to the stand at the High Court in Edinburgh for the first time on Tuesday to give his version of events on the night the trio are alleged to have killed the Arbroath oil worker.

Steven Donaldson.He said a plan had been hatched between Glass and Davidson to give 27-year-old Mr Donaldson a “roughing up” for “hassling” his ex-girlfriend over insurance money for a written-off car.

It followed the conclusion of the Crown case against the trio, who are all from Kirriemuir, on the 14th day of the trial.

Tyre fitter Dickie, 24, denied knowing anything about Mr Donaldson prior to the night of June 6 last year, or taking part in the events he witnessed at the Peter Pan playpark on the Hill in the Angus town.

Dickie, Davidson and Glass all deny murdering Mr Donaldson on June 6 or 7 last year.

Closing the prosecution case, Ashley Edwards QC deleted an allegation within the main charge that they had incapacitated Mr Donaldson at the playpark before taking him to Loch of Kinnordy nature reserve.

A charge that Dickie and Davidson had put a kitten in a bag and punched and kicked it in Lochore, Fife, between February 1 and May 31 2017 was also withdrawn by the Crown.

Questioned by his counsel, Ian Duguid QC, Dickie said he had been in a sexual relationship with Glass, who was aged 19 at the time, for a few weeks prior to June last year, but it was not “full on”.

Asked if he had heard Steven Donaldson’s name before the night of June 6, or knew him to be an ex-boyfriend of Glass, he said he did not.

Prior to the events at the play park, Dickie said he had gone swimming at Cortachy with Glass, Davidson and Davidson’s girlfriend, Claire Ogston, and that Glass had been “bubbling away” in Davidson’s house.

“Callum had mentioned that this boy was giving her hassle over money,” Dickie told the trial.

He added: “As the conversation progressed I started to learn he had been seeing her.

“Tasmin was to meet him, she was going up the Hill on her own.”

The accused said he was “not bothered” about the planned encounter, but told the court: “Callum was going up to give him a bit of a roughing up, a warning to back off.”

Mr Duguid said: “Who discussed that?”

Dickie replied: “Tasmin and Callum.”

Asked about the night in question, he said Glass had dropped him and Davidson off at the Roods and they had walked up to the area of Kirrie Hill.

Dickie said he saw Glass’s Vauxhall Corsa and Donaldson’s BMW sitting side by side, with the driver’s windows facing each other.

“We received a phone call from Tasmin saying to hurry up. I answered the phone and put Callum on but by that point we were only metres away, you could hear the shouting,” he told the trial.

Dickie said he did not get his phone back until around 1am the following morning.

Davidson started running towards the BMW and “lunged” in the driver’s window, he told the trial.

“I just sort of froze, just like, leave him to it,” Dickie said.

“As he dived in the window Tasmin just took off, she left, she’s away at that point.”

Dickie said the BMW then went “shooting back” and the front end spun out.

“Callum was in the car by that point, through the open window,” the accused continued.

Dickie said he was “left standing”, but did not see who was driving the car, and he then walked to Davidson’s house.

“I sat on the sofa and had a tin of Tennents,” he said, adding that Davidson returned home around an hour to an hour and a half later.

Mr Duguid asked if Davidson had discussed what had happened at Kinnordy and Dickie said his friend had told him he “had sorted the boy out and stuff like that, just that he had given the boy a hiding”.

Did you think the boy was dead?” asked the QC.

“No, not at all,” replied Dickie.

Charges (amended)

Davidson faces a further charge of assaulting a man between June 1 2017 and December 31 2017 at a house in Glengate, Kirriemuir, by pushing him to the floor and threatening 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 by seizing her by the wrist and neck and threatening her with violence.

Day 15

Co-accused admits lying to police during investigation

A murder accused has admitted lying to police in the Steven Donaldson investigation because he didn’t want to be labelled a “grass” by getting his best pal into trouble.

On his second day of evidence at the High Court in Edinburgh, Steven Dickie said he had not been truthful during the Dundee Police HQ interview which stretched over more than five hours and led to him being charged with the killing of the 27-year-old Arbroath oil worker, along with co-accused Callum Davidson and Tasmin Glass.

He also admitted he became concerned about what might have happened at Kinnordy Loch – where he knew Davidson had gone looking for a broken baseball bat in the early hours of June 7 last year – after hearing a body and burned out car had been discovered there.

But Dickie told the 15th day of the trial: “I was sort of asking snippets, but not too much, the less I know the better.”

Murder co-accused takes to the stand to give version of events from night of Steven Donaldson’s death

The 24-year-old tyre fitter told his senior counsel, Ian Duguid QC: “There were bits I was telling the truth and then I stopped myself from speaking. I didn’t want to be labelled a grass.”

He also accepted he had not been truthful in the police interview when he told police there were no other cars in the car park at Kirrie Hill on the night of June 6, after telling the court yesterday he saw Glass speed off in her vehicle when Davidson “dived” through the window of Mr Donaldson’s white BMW.

Dickie has told the court he then went back to Davidson’s house in Marywell Brae, to which his co-accused returned some time later.

He said Davidson had “scrubbed his hands in the kitchen sink” then had a cigarette, before going back to Kinnordy Loch.

His QC put to him earlier evidence of Davidson’s girlfriend, Claire Ogston, in which she had told police it was the second accused who was doing Dickie a favour by going to the loch to look for the broken bat.

“No”, replied the accused.

He said Davidson returned around 2am, took all his clothes off at the door and then went to bed.

Dickie went to work the following morning and passed a police roadblock at the end of the B951 leading to the Angus nature reserve.

When asked about hearing that a body and burned out car had been found, he told his QC: “It did start going through my mind what he’s done.

“Initially I thought it was maybe a car accident and then it clicked on that’s where Callum had went to look for the bat and I thought it might be a bit serious.”

Mr Duguid asked: “Did you think he had killed him?”

Dickie replied: “No.”

Steven Donaldson murder accused denies prison cell boast of killing ‘the boy’ and £10k offer to best pal to take rap

A murder accused made a prison cell confession, boasting he had stabbed “the boy” more than 25 times, a jury heard yesterday.

Steven Dickie, 24, flatly denied the accusation during a second day of evidence in his own defence at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Steven Dickie,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, 20-year-old Tasmin Glass.

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, where he was beaten with instruments before he and his car were set on fire.

All three deny the charges.

On the 15th day of the trial yesterday, 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”.

Steven Donaldson.The trial heard Dickie admit under cross examination by advocate Jonathan Crowe, counsel for Davidson, that 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 (Davidson) 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 QC, 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 being 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 the sixth of June last year.”

“No, I didn’t do it,” Dickie replied.

He was also questioned by Crown prosecutor, advocate depute Ashley Edwards QC, who said jurors had heard Dickie described as a “thug, a bully and an accomplished liar.”

She suggested he and Davidson were “a team, working together to make people feel threatened, under threat”.

She added: “You were not bothered who saw you carrying out that kind of behaviour.”

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 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”.

Day 16

Murder co-accused denies cutting Steven Donaldson’s throat

An Angus murder accused has denied cutting the throat of a man he is accused of killing after getting into the back of his car at a Kirriemuir children’s playpark.

On a third day in the box at the High Court in Edinburgh to give evidence in his own defence, Steven Dickie repeated denials he had been in the BMW of Arbroath man Steven Donaldson at Kirrie Hill on the night of June 6 last year.

Dickie was giving answers during continued cross-examination by Crown prosecutor Ashley Edwards QC about the events in the hours before the 27-year-old oil worker’s charred and beaten body was found beside his burnt out 1 Series BMW at Loch of Kinnordy nature reserve on the outskirts of the Angus town.

Dickie earlier told the court he went to Kirrie Hill with best pal and co-accused Callum Davidson after a plan to give Mr Donaldson a “roughing up” had been discussed with the third accused in the murder case, 20-year-old Tasmin Glass.

He has also told the jury the last he saw of the white BMW was when it left the car park, with Davidson’s legs hanging out the driver’s window.

The advocate depute said: “The reality is that you got in the back of the car and that’s how you and Callum Davidson were able to take Steven Donaldson away. You held him at knifepoint and that allowed Callum Davidson to drive the car?”

“No,” responded the accused, denying he had cut Mr Donaldson’s neck with the knife.

Dickie was then asked: “How did Callum Davidson manage to take Steven Donaldson on his own and drive the car, how is that possible?”

The accused responded: “He’s a strong lad, anything’s possible.”

It was put to the accused: “When you got to Kinnordy, did he (Mr Donaldson) run, up to the edge of the car park?”

“I don’t know,” said Dickie.

The advocate depute continued: “When you and Callum Davidson chased after Steven Donaldson did you catch him at the car park entrance and then the two of you dragged him back to the car?”

“No,” replied the accused.

“You are telling the ladies and gentlemen that you had a plan, but for some reason when you got to the top of Kirrie Hill you stood back?” – continued the advocate depute.

“I’m not a fighter,” replied Dickie.

Steven Donaldson murder trial: Accused Callum Davidson tells court of best pal’s ‘crazed’ look after car park attack

An accused in the Steven Donaldson murder trial has told of the “crazed” look in his best friend’s eyes after seeing him launch a frenzied attack on his girlfriend’s ex in the car park of Kirriemuir’s Peter Pan playpark.

Callum Davidson admitted punching Mr Donaldson but told High Court jurors he was pushed aside by a “roaring” Steven Dickie on the night of June 6 last year after they went to Kirrie Hill, where Mr Donaldson was in a row with their co-accused Tasmin Glass.

She drove away from the scene before Dickie launched the attack through the window of the car, pulling away with blood on his hands and a knife in one of them, Davidson claimed.

Davidson told the Edinburgh High Court trial there was a “rammy” between the two men after he called Dickie a “f*****g idiot”, with his co-accused going “off the heid”.

Farm worker Davidson said he and Dickie had gone to the Hill after Glass had been receiving texts and calls from her former partner, something which had made Dickie “half-crabbit”.

Glass and Donaldson were parked there, but he said Dickie was “hanging off” so he went forward first and “assaulted the lad”.

In answer to questions from his legal counsel, advocate Jonathan Crowe, Davidson told the trial’s 16th day: “Steven started to shout move, move, move and by that time Tasmin was gone.”

Dickie was “roaring” in the background before he then leant through the window and started striking Mr Donaldson,” he added.

“I started shouting let’s get a move on, but he wasn’t for stopping like.”

“He then stopped, pulled himself out and I saw the blood on his hands. It was the blood from the boy in the car. I seen the knife in his left hand.”

Davidson added: “It’s something giving somebody a slap, but that was a whole different ball game.”

Mr Crowe asked: “How was he behaving?”

Davidson replied: “Crazed.

“It was Steven standing in front of me but it wasn’t Steven looking at me. He looked right through me, he didn’t care I was there and he didn’t care what he had done.”

Asked how he felt, Davidson replied: “I’m not going to lie, I was very close to having a meltdown myself.

“I was angry with Steven, I was sad at what had happened, all sorts were going through my heid.”

Davidson said the situation made him feel “very small”.

“We’re meant to be best friends,” he added.

Davidson said Mr Donaldson was slumped in the driver’s seat and he thought he may be dead.

“He (Dickie) told me to get in the car.

“He advised me that would be in the best interests of Claire (Ogston, Davidson’s girlfriend) and my unborn child.”

Davidson said he was then told to drive by Dickie and they eventually came to the car park at Kinnordy Loch nature reserve.

During the journey, Mr Donaldson began to move in the back of the car and Davidson said he was “kind of relieved, but at the same time my head was in a rough state of affairs.”

“Steven (Dickie) kept shouting at him that he was bursting his heid every time he tried to get in contact with Tasmin.”

Asked what happened when they got to the car park, Davidson said: “I started to walk for the gate.

“I got about half way across and heard feet shuffling in the gravel and Steven (Dickie) shouting and I got a serious fright.

“I thought it was my turn and started to run, but it was Steven Donaldson trying to get away.”

Davidson continued to head away but said he could see Mr Donaldson lying outside on the road, being hit with a baseball bat by his co-accused.

“I heard the first hit, it was a dull thud and Steven was still shouting for me to get back.

“What got my attention was the different noise the bat made, it’s strange to say but that’s what I remember.”

Steven Donaldson was found dead near Loch of Kinnordy. Davidson told his counsel he walked back along a path from the reserve towards Kirriemuir and turned round to see the “trees glowing orange”.

“I had a kind of freak out, I didn’t know what I was going to do.”

Dickie then caught up with him and he told the jurors: “Me and him went back to normal, we were best friends again.”

They walked back to Kirrie, but Davidson said Dickie then ordered him to go back out to the loch to search for the broken baseball bat.

He said he found splinters and the handle – which was “sticky” – but threw them away, telling Dickie he hadn’t been able to locate the weapon.

“I knew that if he knew I’d found it and didn’t take it back he’d go crazy.”

Davidson also admitted the two men and his girlfriend had concocted a story about their movements on that night, and had gone out for tea in the town on the evening of June 7, the day Mr Donaldson’s body was found.

“By that time Kirrie had already had us hung, drawn and quartered.”

“Rumours?” asked the advocate.

“Yes,” replied Davidson.

Kirrie murder accused Davidson has already been in prison for assault

Murder accused Callum Davidson told the Edinburgh jury he has already spent time behind bars for assault and been convicted of possession a weapon.

At the opening of his own defence evidence, the 24-year-old was questioned about his criminal record by his legal counsel, advocate Jonathan Crowe.

Davidson admitted he had served six months for assault.

He told the jury of eight women and seven men: “It was a run in at the pub that went sour, well I didn’t take too kindly to that like.”

He said an offensive weapon possession conviction had related to a family row in which insults had been traded in the street.

“I was holding a hammer, but I was just holding it in my hand,” he said.

Davidson also admitted a number of road traffic convictions and said he did not have a driving licence.

He told the trial he and girlfriend Claire Ogston have a daughter who was born in January this year.

“Since I got hame last year everything’s got settled and sorted out,”

Mr Crowe asked his if he had murdered Mr Donaldson and he replied: “No, I didnae.”

The advocate added: “The suggestion you are a hard man, a muscle man, the go to man, how do you respond to that?”

“Nonsense,” said Davidson.

The accused also told the trial that Dickie had offered him money in the early stage of their remand – the pair have been in custody since mid-June last year – to take the blame for the murder.

“He said he would give me substantial money if I could take this on the chin. I said, it’s no happening,” Davidson said.

The trial continues.

Day 17

Murder co-accused denies fabricating claim best pal’s ‘jealous anger’ led to Steven Donaldson’s death

An Angus murder accused has denied making up a story that his best pal’s “jealous anger” led to the killing of Arbroath man Steven Donaldson.

Callum Davidson, left, and Steven Dickie, right.Callum Davidson told Edinburgh High Court jurors that he had not fabricated a version of events that co-accused Steven Dickie’s reaction to trouble between Tasmin Glass and her oil worker ex Mr Donaldson was behind an attack on the 27-year-old at Kirriemuir’s Peter Pan playpark last June.

Davidson, Dickie and Glass all continue to deny murdering Mr Donaldson on June 6 or 7 2018 and setting fire to him and his car at Kinnordy Loch nature reserve on the outskirts of Kirriemuir.

On the trial’s 17th day, Davidson took to the stand for the second day of evidence in his own defence and was questioned by Dickie’s senior counsel, Ian Duguid QC, firstly about a baseball bat which he had collected from his cousin Michael Davidson’s home on the night of June 6.

Davidson has told the trial he had been asked by Dickie to get the “thingy”, adding that he knew he meant the bat because of previous requests by his co-accused to get “the thingy”.

Mr Duguid suggested to the accused his version of events that Dickie had walked up Kirrie Hill with the bat concealed down his back, then taken it to Kinnordy in Mr Donaldson’s BMW before striking him with it and breaking it made no sense.

The QC put it to Davidson: “The fact of the matter is he (Dickie) didn’t leave any of his DNA on the bat because he never touched the bat?”

“No,” replied Davidson.

Mr Duguid then put it to the accused that evidence he previously gave about the reason for the two men going to Kirrie Hill was because of Dickie’s “jealous anger” was fabricated, which Davidson replied was not the case.

Davidson added: “It’ll not be the first time things have led one thing to another in the case of Steven and love rivals.”

The trial, before Lord Pentland and a jury of eight women and seven men, continues.

Steven Donaldson murder accused admits 2am CCTV ‘act’ as trial hears friend ‘bragged’ of stabbing man 26 times

Murder accused Callum Davidson has admitted putting on a show for the cameras in a 2am bike ride through an Angus town as his alleged victim’s battered corpse lay beside his smouldering BMW at a nearby beauty spot.

The 24-year-old farmhand was captured on CCTV in Kirriemuir just hours before Steven Donaldson’s body was found at the Kinnordy nature reserve.

In the witness box at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, Davidson said he had gone there under the orders of co-accused Steven Dickie — but denied it was to “clean up” a murder scene.

Jurors also heard Dickie, 24, had bragged to a fellow prisoner that he stabbed Mr Donaldson 26 times – the exact number of wounds revealed in an autopsy report – when the pair were in a cell together at Perth.

Davidson, Dickie and a third co-accused Tasmin Glass, 20, all deny murdering Mr Donaldson on June 6 or 7 2018.

The trio are accused of assaulting the 27-year-old oil worker from Arbroath at the Peter Pan children’s play park in Kirriemuir.

Prosecutors allege they then took him to the car park at Loch of Kinnordy where he was beaten, before his body and his car were set on fire.

Giving evidence in his own defence for a second day, Davidson rejected a suggestion by Dickie’s defence counsel, Ian Duguid QC, that he was a “gratuitously violent man” who would get involved in violence for no reason.

However, he told Crown prosecutor Ashley Edwards QC he had hit Mr Donaldson three times at the Hill, before Dickie stepped in.

The trial has heard the pair went there after Glass had arranged to meet Mr Donaldson, her ex-boyfriend.

On the 17th day of evidence yesterday, the court heard Dickie, who was in a relationship with Glass, then ordered him to drive the oil worker’s BMW to Kinnordy.

Jurors were told Mr Donaldson was in the back, covered in blood after a frenzied attack by Dickie, who had a knife.

“Did Steven Donaldson start to come to, to fight back?” asked the advocate depute.

Davidson said: “The whole time he was shouting, the two of them were shouting at each other and Steven (Dickie) would hit the other lad to keep him quiet.

“I thought he had died through the time I was driving,” he said.

Davidson denied he had collected a weapon from his Ford Ranger parked elsewhere in Kirrie as he and Dickie made their way to the Hill to meet Mr Donaldson, or that he had used it at Kinnordy.

“You were standing next to Steven Dickie assaulting Steven Donaldson with your axe or machete?” suggested the advocate depute.

“No, incorrect,” replied the accused.

Davidson has told the trial he fled from the nature reserve car park before Dickie beat Mr Donaldson with a baseball bat, but admitted he went back there on his bike to try to find the broken weapon.

“When you went back to the car park did you see Steven Donaldson’s body?” the prosecutor asked.

“The tyres were still burning but there wasn’t enough light to see that,” said Davidson.

Asked about the town centre CCTV footage, he said: “Steven knew I had to get past the cameras so I was to act normal.”

Under re-examination by his defence counsel, advocate Jonathan Crowe, Davidson accepted he and best friend Dickie had been a “team”.

Mr Crowe said: “There comes a point in any team where the rules of the game are gone beyond?”

“That was on the night of the sixth,” Davidson replied.

The trial also heard from 34-year-old Gary Paterson, who said he met Dickie while on remand.

Mr Paterson, who is serving a 30-month sentence, said: “He told me he was in for murder. He said he had stabbed the boy 26 times.

“He said that Callum punched him in a car, he pulled Callum out of the way and Steven had stabbed him 26 times.”

When asked if Dickie had given a reason he said it was “because of his girlfriend being pregnant or something like that.”

The witness added: “Steven Dickie told me that he had offered Callum £10,000 to take the blame.

Mr Paterson said he felt Dickie was “bragging about it” and he told him he was “out of order”.

“Fair enough I’m in for a serious assault, but murdering someone, it’s no nice,” he said.

Day 18

Tasmin Glass tells jury she discussed moving to Qatar with man she is accused of killing

Tasmin Glass had considered starting a new life in Qatar with the man she is accused of murdering.

On Day 18 of the Steven Donaldson murder trial at the High Court in Edinburgh, Glass told the jury of the relationship which developed between her and Mr Donaldson in June 2017 after they met at a motorcycle race meeting at Knockhill. She said she still believed they had a future together at the time he died.

She denied two-timing Mr Donaldson with her murder co-accused Steven Dickie at the time her ex’s charred and beaten body was found in the car park of Loch of Kinnordy nature reserve, but said the relationship had been in trouble.

Mr Donaldson, 27, had been offered a new job in Qatar and 20-year-old Glass told the trial they had discussed going there together.

The jury heard there were also difficulties in the relationship, including one row in which Mr Donaldson has slapped her in the face.

She said they had also previously argued about his use of steroids.

“He took them. His moods would change — one minute he would be happy and the next minute he would be in the worst mood ever,” said Glass.

She said the last time she saw Mr Donaldson was April 2018, before he went to Ireland for a motorcycle road race.

She was also asked about repayment of £5,470 from the insurance payout for a written-off car Mr Donaldson had bought her and said she paid him back several sums in cash, including one of £2,000.

There was £1,000 outstanding and the plan had been to use that for a holiday fund for them to go away together.

“He wanted to maintain the relationship. I wanted to maintain the relationship,” she said.

One of the reasons she became concerned on June 7, the day the deceased’s body was discovered by RSPB staff, was the absence of a daily contact by him.

“Steven used to message me every morning, never mind fall out or not fall out and he didn’t message me that morning,” she told the court.

Tasmin Glass, 20, Steven Dickie, 24 and Callum Davidson, 24, all from Kirriemuir, face a charge of murdering Mr Donaldson at Loch of Kinnordy between June 6 and 7 2018.

Dickie and Davidson face a number of other charges including two of threatening men by following them and presenting weapons on dates between 2014 and 2018.

They are also accused of staring at a woman and kicking her car in the town of 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.

Dickie is accused of assaulting a woman at the Ogilvy Arms pub in Kirriemuir between February 1 and 28 last year.

Tasmin Glass tells jury she never saw ex on night of alleged killing

Murder accused Tasmin Glass took to the witness stand at the High Court in Edinburgh to deny she saw the father of her unborn baby on the night she is alleged to have played a part in his killing.

On the 18th day of the trial, the 20-year-old singer insisted Steven Donaldson did not turn up to a meeting they had arranged at the Peter Pan playpark at Kirriemuir Hill.

She said the pair had been supposed to discuss their relationship and the supposed handover of £1,000 she was due him from a car insurance payoff.

Co-accused Callum Davidson and Steven Dickie – with whom Glass was in a sexual relationship at the time of the alleged murder last summer – have both claimed Glass sped off from the scene just before they launched an attack on the 27-year-old oil worker.

The jury has previously heard Mr Donaldson’s spinal cord was severed twice in a fatal attack before his beaten and charred body was discovered beside his burnt-out BMW at the Loch of Kinnordy nature reserve, near Kirrie, on the morning of June 7 last year.

Giving evidence on her own behalf, Glass told her defence counsel Mark Stewart she had never been involved in any trouble with the police.

Referring to 19,000 pages of data culled from Glass’s mobile phone as part of the inquiry, Mr Stewart asked: “Did any of that infer you were willing to get involved in violence?

She replied: “I’ve never been involved with violence and I’ve never gone through a third party to inflict violence.”

Glass told the court Mr Donaldson had been texting and calling her during the evening of June 6.

She also agreed she had told Davidson not to tell Dickie it was her ex on the phone.

“I knew Steven Dickie wouldn’t be happy. Steven’s very huffy,” she said.

She also admitted she heard Davidson make a phone call to a man called Colin Chalmers, saying Mr Donaldson was coming through from Arbroath and was going to be given “a hiding”.

Glass told the trial: “I shook my head. I didn’t believe he was going to do anything.
“I thought Callum was being the big man.”

Glass accepted she had driven Davidson to his uncle’s house where, jurors have been told, a baseball bat was picked up.

However, she denied she had seen it being brought into her car.

“If there was anything there I would have seen it and I would probably have made a sarcastic comment and asked him why he had got that,” she said.

She told the court she had asked Steven Dickie if he would be able to “speak” to Mr Donaldson.

“He was only going to speak to Steven if I asked him to, if I needed him to,” she said.

“I believed we probably would get back together, but I just didn’t want to argue.”

She said she had wanted to put off the meeting that night, and did not want Mr Donaldson to come to her home in Kirriemuir.

“We probably would have both played happy families, but my mum and dad thought I was seeing Steven Dickie, so I didn’t really want another boy round,” she said.

She also agreed she had indicated to Mr Donaldson she was on her way home from Glasgow, but had been in Kirriemuir throughout the time they were in contact that day.

“I couldn’t just say I was in Kirrie because I had to maintain that lie,” she said.

Glass told her ex in a text she “had everything” for him to collect.

However, she told the counsel she believed Mr Donaldson was keen to talk about rekindling the relationship.

Mr Stewart said: “It is suggested, I think, you formed a plan with Mr Dickie and or Mr Davidson, both of them, either of them, to do harm by way of violence to Steven Donaldson on June 6.

“Standing here, in front of his family, your family, this jury, did you do that?”.

She replied: “No, I didn’t.”

Mr Stewart asked her: “For £1,000 would you enter into a pact to hurt somebody?”

“No, I wouldn’t do that for any money,” she said.

Tasmin Glass, 20, Steven Dickie, 24 and Callum Davidson, 24, all from Kirriemuir, face a charge of murdering Mr Donaldson at Loch of Kinnordy between June 6 and 7 2018.

Dickie and Davidson face a number of other charges including two of threatening men by following them and presenting weapons on dates between 2014 and 2018.

They are also accused of staring at a woman and kicking her car in the town of 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.

Dickie is accused of assaulting a woman at the Ogilvy Arms pub in Kirriemuir between February 1 and 28 last year.

Tasmin Glass tells court she ‘still loved’ man she is accused of killing

The Steven Donaldson murder trial has heard the alleged victim told accused Tasmin Glass “If I can help you I will”, just weeks before his death.

Day 18 of the trial at the High Court in Edinburgh on Monday heard his pledge came after the then 19-year-old girlfriend, with whom he was trying to get back together, had sent a text saying she had f***** everything up”.

The court heard this was in reference to her falling behind with the rent for her flat in Glasgow, where she moved to in order to cut down on travel for rehearsals with her band.

The text was one of several jurors were told about during cross-examination by Crown counsel Ashley Edwards.

However, Glass told the court: “I was never with him for his money.”

She also said she would never have allowed Mr Donaldson to travel to Kirriemuir if she believed he was going to come to any harm on the night of the alleged attack last June.

Glass was initially asked by the prosecutor if she was “quite a confident person, someone that deals with stress quite well”.

“No, not at all,” she responded.

Turning to financial matters, Glass was asked if she was in “a little bit of conflict” with her parents about money by the period around April 2018.

She said: “A little bit. I had money troubles, had overspent on a credit card and that led to an argument.

“I know my mum and dad would have helped me. I just didn’t want to disappoint them,” she added.

The court heard Glass had begun seeing murder co-accused Steven Dickie at the beginning of May and Mr Donaldson had sent her a message telling her to transfer money she still owed him, or he would message Glass’s mum directly.

“I told him not to,” the accused said.

She said she still harboured a hope that her relationship with Mr Donaldson would continue.

It was put to her that one of the reasons for this was that money would not become an issue.

“No, not at all,” she said. “If I wanted the money I would have just gone to my mum and dad and they would have just given me it.”

Jurors also heard about another text conversation on May 22 in which Mr Donaldson revealed the “crazy money” he had been offered in a new job, amounting to a package worth around £135,000.

In response to questioning by the advocate depute, Glass repeated her position that she had known nothing about any weapons on the night of June 6.

“If I knew there was any chance of that, I would not let Steven Donaldson come through, especially with him being the father of my child,” she said.

The QC put it to her: “There was a plan for the three of you to act together.”

“No,” Glass replied.

She described June 6 as a “nice night” and said she had just wanted to go swimming with her friends.

“I didn’t want to argue with Steven Donaldson,” she said.

“I think me and Steven would have got back together. I still loved him.”

Asked about her vehicle movements in the minutes after 11pm, she said she had gone into the car park at the Peter Pan playpark and saw a red Ford Fiesta sitting there with a single male driver inside, but no other vehicle.

It was put to Glass that a period of around a minute which she said she spent at the junction on the road leading to the playpark was “a convenient lie” to account for earlier phone and CCTV evidence.

Glass responded: “Steven Donaldson wasn’t there, Callum Davidson wasn’t there and Steven Dickie wasn’t there.”

The advocate depute also asked if she had been in contact with Dickie on
June 7.

She told the trial they had discussed whether she was going to the Angus Show that weekend.

The trial has already been told that two days after the discovery of Mr Donaldson’s body, Glass went to a Marti Pellow concert in Fife with her boss.

When asked how she was, Glass replied: “Upset. I’d put a face on it. I wasn’t going to go crying all night. That wouldn’t have been very good for her birthday night.”

Glass ‘missed out lots’ in statements to police

Tasmin Glass admitted she had been a “coward” on the night of June 6 last year when she failed to tell Steven Donaldson she did not have the £1,000 she was supposed to hand over to him at Kirrie Hill.

Under cross-examination by Dickie’s senior legal counsel, Ian Duguid QC, she also admitted she had “missed out lots” in witness statements given to police before she was charged with murder.

The first was taken on the day her ex’s burned and beaten body was found at the Loch of Kinnordy Nature Reserve.

She agreed she had told police Dickie – with whom she was having a sexual relationship – had been in her car for a river swimming trip to Cortachy that night, when he had in fact been riding his motorbike to and from Kirriemuir.

Turning to details of phone calls made around 11pm that night, Glass agreed she had spoken to Dickie within 53 seconds of stopping a phone call to Mr Donaldson, in which she said their alleged victim had told her she was “taking the ****” because she had not appeared at the Peter Pan playpark as agreed.

Dickie and the third co-accused Callum Davidson have both said they saw Glass and Mr Donaldson’s cars parked side by side there, but that she sped off before Davidson lunged at their alleged victim through his driver’s window.

“You can understand how these events look unfortunate for you?” said Mr Duguid.

Glass replied: “I can see what you’re putting in front of me.”

The QC added: “What do you say to Steven Dickie’s evidence that you phoned his phone and asked to speak to Callum?”

“Absolute rubbish,” replied Glass.

In response to questioning by advocate Jonathan Crowe, for Davidson, Glass accepted neither of her co-accused had known Mr Donaldson prior to June 6 last year.

Asked why she would have phoned Dickie to say Mr Donaldson was not at the car park, she said it was “the right thing to do, to let him know he wasn’t there and I was just going home”.

Mr Crowe put it to her: “You were there and you’re scared to venture there in case it implicates you in the murder of Steven Donaldson?”

“I was not there, Steven Donaldson’s car was not there,” she said.

Police questions led Glass to believe ex’s death was being considered as suicide

Tasmin Glass wept in the dock as she recalled receiving a message from Steven Donaldson’s sister which led her to fear the body found at Loch of Kinnordy Nature Reserve might be that of the boyfriend she had been due to meet the night before.

After going to work as normal in the café and takeaway where she had worked since being a Saturday girl there, the former Webster’s High School pupil also told Court Three of the High Court in Edinburgh that her initial involvement with police led her to suspect they were considering Steven Donaldson may have taken his own life.

Glass said she also became quickly aware of rumours sweeping Kirriemuir which linked her and the two co-accused to the killing, as well as suggestions that her father may have been involved.

She told her defence counsel, Mark Stewart QC, of going to work in Lee’s café in the centre of the Angus town as normal at 8am on the morning of June 7.

As news of the grim find began to sweep the community, Glass went to a police cordon set up on the edge of Kirrie at the road leading to the loch.

It followed a message from the deceased’s sister expressing concern that the family and none of his friends had heard from him and could not reach him on his phone.

“She asked me to ask about the registration of the car,” Glass said.

She said police confirmed a body had been recovered but they could not give her details of the vehicle involved.

“Basically they were putting it to me that it was suicide, the questions they asked me were to do with suicide,” the accused added.

Day 19

Prosecutor says Steven Donaldson trio hatched plan together with ‘wicked disregard for consequences’

The trio accused of the killing of Steven Donaldson were each involved in a “murderous plan” hatched on the evening before the 27-year-old’s body was found charred and beaten at an Angus nature reserve, High Court jurors have been told.

In a two-hour closing speech on the 19th day of the trial of Steven Dickie, Callum Davidson and Tasmin Glass, Crown prosecutor Ashley Edwards QC said all three played their part with “wicked disregard for the consequences “ on the night of June 6 last year.

She said Davidson was not the “simple country lad” he might have the jury believe, and she told them Glass had “facilitated” Mr Donaldson’s arrival at the Peter Pan play park on Kirrie Hill after she used her two co-accused to “stop her web of lies unravelling” around the state of her life at the time.

Parts of the case featured an “obvious flashing red light to signal the guilt of the accused.”

The advocate depute said it also included smaller bits of evidence which drew together to make a “full and complete picture” of all three being responsible for the “brutal” death of the Arbroath oil worker. She urged the jury to reject any submission which may come forward that a charge of culpable homicide should be considered for Glass.

“All three were responsible for the death of Steven Donaldson in the full knowledge that weapons were to be taken to a meeting with him.

“What followed was a brutal and sustained attack by the first and second accused,” added the prosecutor, reminding the jury of evidence indicating Mr Donaldson had been “fighting for his life” at the Kinnordy Loch RSPB reserve where his body was discovered just before 5am on June 7.

She said the other charges, dropped at the conclusion of evidence, showed a “pattern of behaviour of Davidson and Dickie following a course of conduct centred around partners and current and ex-girlfriends of Steven Dickie.”

Glass, she added, knew of the reputation of Dickie and Davidson, the trial having heard how she believed then boyfriend Dickie would “go mental” if he knew Steven Donaldson had called her that night.

She said Glass had wanted to spend the night of June 6 in a different way, with friends and away from the issues that had led to Mr Donaldson contacting her.

“Pregnancy, money, financial pressures, dealing with an ex-partner did not figure,” continued the advocate depute.

“She wanted the compartments of her life to remain separate, and you might think that when the plan was formulated that she was using Steven Dickie and Callum Davidson to that effect, and to stop her web of lies unravelling.

“Her evidence is incredible and unreliable,” said the advocate depute.

Of Davidson, she said: “You might think with his evidence he tried to portray a simple country lad.”

The prosecutor said it was her submission that was not the case, the trial having heard evidence of a web search for a steel machete, and Davidson’s “eye for a business opportunity” after offering to “sort out” someone for £400.

“Piece by piece, the evidence goes towards that final complete picture of the guilt of all three of the crime of murder. Of the murder of Steven Donaldson,” said the advocate depute.

Today will see submissions by counsel for the three accused and, following an address by Lord Pentland, the jury will then retire to consider their verdict.

Lesser charges against Steven Dickie and Callum Davidson are dropped

The jury in the Steven Donaldson trial will consider only the charge of murder.

At the conclusion of Crown and defence evidence on the 19th day of the Edinburgh High Court trial against Steven Dickie, Callum Davidson and Tasmin Glass, Crown prosecutor Ashley Edwards QC indicated she was dropping five charges on the indictment against the two male accused.

An allegation against Dickie and Davidson that they abused a kitten at Lochore in Fife was dropped.

Dickie and Davidson had also faced two charges of threatening men by following them and presenting weapons on dates between 2014 and 2018, and staring at a woman and kicking her car in Kirriemuir between August 2017 and April last year.

Davidson had been accused of assaulting a man at the house in the Angus town’s Glengate, and Dickie of assaulting a woman in the Ogilvy Arms pub between February 1 and 28 last year.

Trial judge Lord Pentland formally acquitted Dickie and Davidson of the five charges.

He told the jury that although the charges against the two men had been withdrawn, the panel of eight women and seven men were entitled to take evidence before them into account in their deliberations on the remaining charge of murder.

All three accused continue to deny murdering 27-year-old oil worker Mr Donaldson on June 6 or 7 last year after attacking him at Kirriemuir’s Peter Pan playpark, and then further attacking him with a baseball bat and knife and a heavy bladed instrument at Loch of Kinnordy, near Kirriemuir and setting fire to him and his car.

The advocate depute will begin her summing up in the case on Tuesday afternoon, followed by submissions by counsel for the three accused.

Following an address by Lord Pentland, the jury will then consider to retire to consider their verdict.

Day 20

Defence closing speeches

Steven Donaldson murder trial: ‘No scientific or forensic evidence’ linking Steven Dickie to crime scene, court told

High court jurors in the Steven Donaldson murder trial have been told they must set aside any prejudices they may harbour in reaching a verdict over the “horrible, terrible crime.”

In his closing speech on the 20th day of the Edinburgh High Court trial of two men and a woman accused of the murder of the 27-year-old Arbroath oil worker, Steven Dickie’s QC Ian Duguid said there was “no scientific or forensic evidence” linking his client to the brutal killing.

He also urged the jurors to reject the portrayal of Dickie as “an extraordinary, deranged figure” in the evidence of his co-accused best pal Callum Davidson.

“This is a horrible, terrible crime and there is no looking away from that fact,” said Mr Duguid.

Prosecutor says Steven Donaldson trio hatched plan together with ‘wicked disregard for consequences’

“I’m reckoning that you are all thinking exactly the same and I do, that it’s a terrible, despicable crime.

“The question for you is should you even bother yourself, should you be discerning which of them is guilty or not guilty. Somebody in the dock here committed the murder, there can be no doubt about that.”

He told jurors: “The prosecution are so reliant on a conviction of Steven Dickie with Callum Davidson’s version of events.

“Everybody who is important to this case had lied, but if someone tells a lie then the opposite isn’t true.

“Steven Dickie has not a single thing, in a forensic sense, connecting him to the baseball bat.

“There is no CCTV, no scientific connection at all between Steve Dickie and the commission of this crime.”

On the question of motive, he told the jury: “This is all about Tasmin Glass’s money, the person that is fixing up Callum Davidson to scare Steven Donaldson because of the money.

“All this stuff about Steven Dickie being some jealous guy because he found out there was some other boyfriend is just rubbish.”

‘Gold-digger’ theory dismissed by Tasmin Glass QC in closing address

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.

“Big fish, flash guy” Dickie blamed by best pal Davidson for killing of Steven Donaldson

“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.”

Steven Donaldson murder trial: ‘No scientific or forensic evidence’ linking Steven Dickie to crime scene, court told

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.

‘Big fish, flash guy’ Dickie blamed by best pal Davidson for killing of Steven Donaldson

Callum Davidson’s stated position as an eye witness to a murderous attack on Steven Donaldson made him “the most important witness in the case”, jurors were told yesterday.

Davidson has admitted hitting Mr Donaldson at the Angus town’s Peter Pan playpark on the night of June 6, they were reminded.

However, the High Court in Edinburgh has also heard him describe how his best friend, a “crazed” Steven Dickie, launched a frenzied assault on the Arbroath oil worker, before ordering him to drive Mr Donaldson’s BMW to Loch of Kinnordy, where he attacked him with a baseball bat.

Advocate Jonathan Crowe said Dickie was the “flash guy, the big fish in the small pond of Kirriemuir”.

“He was smooth talking, with the gift of the gab,” he said.

‘Gold-digger’ theory dismissed by Tasmin Glass QC in closing address

“We have heard how, if any man dares to express an interest in one of his girlfriends, he wants to do them violence.

“Tragically, in the case of Steven Donaldson, that happened to him.”

Mr Crowe said the two 24-year-olds from Kirriemuir had been best friends for a long time but it was Dickie who called the shots.

He continued: “He had all the trappings of wealth compared to Callum Davidson, who led a kind of hand-to-mouth existence.”

Steven Donaldson murder trial: ‘No scientific or forensic evidence’ linking Steven Dickie to crime scene, court told

The counsel described Dickie as “manipulative” and Davidson as “no angel”.

He went on: “There has been a tragic loss of a young life, but convicting the wrong person for the murder will do nothing for Steven Donaldson and his family.

“Callum Davidson was not part of a plan to assault Steven Donaldson with a lethal weapon. He was duped into going along with Steven Dickie.

“Callum Davidson was by far the most important witness in this case because he was an eye-witness to what happened to Steven Donaldson.

“Callum Davidson made it abundantly clear in his own evidence that he was not involved in the murderous attack on Steven Donaldson.”

The advocate told the jury: “It is human nature to be repulsed by this type of allegation and to want to have things done about that.

“But this is not a court of morals where you judge people by their lifestyles and can rush to conclusions about guilt.”

Day 21

Jurors sent out to consider verdict

Jurors in the Steven Donaldson murder trial have retired to consider their verdicts.

Following 19 days of evidence during a case which got under way at the High Court in Edinburgh on April 1, the panel of eight women and seven men were sent out by trial judge Lord Pentland shortly after noon on Thursday to begin their deliberations.

Steven Dickie, Callum Davidson and Tasmin Glass all deny murdering 27-year-old Arbroath oil worker Mr Donaldson on June 6 or 7 last year.

Glass, 20, and Dickie and Davidson, both 24, all from Kirriemuir, face a single charge of arranging to meet Mr Donaldson at Kirriemuir’s Peter Pan playpark on June 6 or 7 last year, attacking him there, transporting him to Loch of Kinnordy, near Kirriemuir, where he was further attacked with a baseball bat, knife and a heavy bladed instrument, setting him and his car on fire and murdering him.

Six other charges on the indictment involving Dickie and Davidson were dropped by the Crown earlier in the proceedings.

In the duration of the trial, the jury heard evidence from more than 50 witnesses.

All three accused also took the stand to give evidence in their own defence in the trial’s closing stages.

The jury was also presented with seven joint minutes of evidence agreed by the Crown and defence, matters which the High Court heard shortened the trial’s duration by around a fortnight.

Lord Pentland told the jury that in considering the substantial amount of evidence before them the must “entirely put out of your minds any pre-conceptions or prejudices one way or the other.”

“You must not allow your judgment to be swayed at all by feelings of sympathy.”

He said emotions of “disapproval or revulsion must be put entirely aside.”

The trial judge explained to the jurors the concept of doctrine of concert, or art and part.

“A common enterprise is not necessarily one planned in advance, on the contrary it can have occurred spontaneously,” he said.

Lord Pentland also addressed the jury on the charge of culpable homicide, which Tasmin Glass’s senior counsel, Mark Stewart QC, had made reference to in his closing speech.

Culpable homicide, the judge said, occurred where the death of another person “has been caused by an unlawful act which is culpable or blameworthy.”

Lord Pentland added: “That unlawful act must be intentional, or at least reckless or grossly careless.”

Day 22

Jury begins second day of deliberations on day 22 of proceedings

The jury in the Steven Donaldson murder trial has begun its second day of deliberations.

At the High Court in Edinburgh, the case against Steven Dickie, Callum Davidson and Tasmin Glass formally called before trial judge Lord Pentland on the 22nd day of proceedings into the case around the alleged murder of the 27-year-old Arbroath oil worker.

The panel of eight women and seven men spent three and a half hours deliberating on Thursday before the trial was adjourned for them to resume their considerations.

Glass, 20, and Dickie and Davidson, both 24, all from Kirriemuir face a single charge of arranging to meet Mr Donaldson at Kirriemuir’s Peter Pan playpark on June 6 or 7 last year, attacking him there, transporting him to Loch of Kinnordy, near Kirriemuir where he was further attacked with a baseball bat, knife and a heavy bladed instrument, setting him and his car on fire and murdering him.

Six other charges on the indictment involving Dickie and Davidson were dropped by the Crown earlier in the proceedings.

In his own evidence, Dickie said he went to Kirrie Hill on the night of June 6 with co-accused Davidson, who he then saw “lunge” through the open window of Mr Donaldson’s BMW before it drove off from the Peter Pan playpark. Dickie said he then walked back to Davidson’s home to watch television and drink beer.

Davidson has admitted to the court he assaulted Mr Donaldson in the car park but was then ordered to move aside by Dickie, who launched a “crazed” attack on their alleged victim.

He told jurors Dickie then ordered him to drive the car to Kinnordy Loch where his best pal then attacked Mr Donaldson with a baseball bat.

Davidson has denied being involved in any assault on Mr Donaldson at the RSPB reserve car park, where the Arbroath man’s corpse, burned and with his spinal cord severed in two places, was found beside the charred shell of his BMW just before 5am on June 7.

Third accused Glass, who was pregnant with her ex-boyfriend Mr Donaldson’s child at the time of the alleged murder, told the jury in her evidence she had arranged to meet him at Kirriemuir playpark to discuss their relationship and repayment of money from a car insurance payout.

She told the trial that Mr Donaldson did not appear for their meeting and denies seeing him at all on the night of June 6.

Afternoon of Friday, May 3 (Day 22): The verdict

Evil killers finally brought to justice for killing of Steven Donaldson

All three of the killers of Arbroath man Steven Donaldson are finally behind bars, after being convicted of one of the most horrific crimes the region has ever seen.

Best friends Steven Dickie and Callum Davidson will serve life sentences, having been found guilty by majority of murdering the 27-year-old oil industry worker last summer.

The jury deleted from the charge the allegation that the two men had set fire to Mr Donaldson.

Tasmin Glass, who lured the father of her baby boy to Kirriemuir Hill on the night of June 6, was convicted of culpable homicide on the unanimous decision of the jury at the High Court in Edinburgh.

She had been out on bail until Friday but judge Lord Pentland rejected her bid to stay out of prison while the killers await sentence, saying it was in the public interest that she should be remanded.

The verdicts came late on Friday afternoon on the 22nd day of the case, and following almost 10 hours of deliberation by the jury of eight women and seven men.

Tasmin Glass.They had heard harrowing evidence of how the popular and handsome offshore worker was attacked by Dickie and Davidson at Kirriemuir’s Peter Pan playpark after Glass arranged to meet him there to discuss their failing relationship.

Mr Donaldson was then driven in his own car to Kinnordy Loch nature reserve, near Kirriemuir, where his murderers carried out a sustained attack which left him with 26 stab wounds and his spinal cord severed in two places.

He was then dragged across the car park and placed underneath his BMW, before it was set on fire.

Callum Davidson, left, and Steven Dickie, right.The blaze was so intense that the vehicle collapsed onto him and burned his legs beyond recognition.

His mutilated body was discovered the following morning by an RSPB warden and colleagues as they arrived to carry out a bird survey at the beauty spot.

Dickie, Davidson and Glass will be sentenced on May 30.

Lord Pentland told the two men they had been found guilty of a “savage and depraved” murder.

He described Steven Donaldson as a “loved and respected young man who had done neither of you any harm.”

Police at the scene after body found Loch of Kinnordy Nature Reserve.Addressing Glass, the judge said she had been found guilty of the “extremely serious offence of culpable homicide.”

He rejected an application by defence advocate Tim Niven-Smith for her bail to be continued.

Mr Niven-Smith told the court Glass recognised she will “have to get used to the fact that she will be separated from her son for a very significant period of time” in light of the verdict.

Steven Donaldson.Steven Donaldson’s plaque at Kinnordy Loch.None of the accused showed any emotion as they were led from the dock.

Glass failed to even acknowledge her parents, who were sitting just feet away in the public seating of Court Three.

Lord Pentland said he would reserve further observations on the “dreadful killing” until his sentencing statements, when Dickie and Davidson will also learn the minimum number of years they will serve.

He said that would include “close consideration” of the victim impact statements before the court.

His Lordship thanked the jury for their diligence in fulfilling the “exceptionally challenging and onerous public service.”

He said they had been faced with “harrowing and distressing” evidence in a complex case.