A man who fell to the ground in a taxi rank and later died was bleeding from the mouth and his eyes had rolled into the back of his head, a court has been told.
Amy McFadyen told the High Court in Edinburgh that Brian Fox’s injuries were immediately apparent as “quite bad” after he hit his head on the road in the Nethergate on January 1.
Wes Reid, 20, and Adam Valentine, 25, are charged with his culpable homicide, which they deny.
Miss McFadyen, 22, described how she and her friend Katie Reid had been out celebrating the New Year before going to the Nethergate to get a taxi home.
The live-in carer told the jury she had been attacked after two others had fallen into the road at the Nethergate taxi rank opposite the Steeple Church.
She said a man she identified as Valentine had approached her and called her something like a “little b****”, and she had put out her hand to defend herself from what she anticipated would be an attack.
She made contact with his face before being attacked from the side, and described being curled up in the foetal position as she was kicked by several people.
Advocate depute Mark McGuire, for the prosecution, asked her what happened next.
“A few seconds after, I looked up and I seen an older gentleman to the right of me and I saw one of the boys strike the man,” she said.
“I couldn’t tell if it was a headbutt or a punch and he fell lie a tree and his head hit the floor. We heard his head hitting the floor.
“I didn’t know if he was crossing the road, he wasn’t saying anything, he wasn’t trying to be involved.
“From the noise I knew it was quite bad. I shrieked: ‘You’ve killed him’.
“Blood was coming out his mouth and his eyes were out the back of his head.”
The court had heard that McFadyen had recognised her attacker as Valentine at the moment of the assault, having “known of him” beforehand.
However, Mark Stewart QC, for Valentine, suggested she had in fact only found out who he was by going on social media after the attack had taken place.
He suggested: “Did you embark on a search of social media to try to identify any others…you had seen in the taxi rank that night?”
Miss McFadyen responded: “I did but not the male I had known previously (Valentine).”
Valentine has entered a special defence in relation to the charge of assaulting Miss McFadyen, claiming he was acting in the defence of another woman.
The trial, before Lord Beckett, continues.
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