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.”
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.
THE CHARGES
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.
