Attempted murder trial told car linked to incident thought to have been stolen

A burned-out car said by prosecutors to have been used in the alleged attempted murder of two police constables was suspected to have been stolen, a court has heard.

The High Court in Edinburgh was told the 4x4 vehicle was found fire-damaged in a residential area less than two miles away from the scene of the incident in Glasgow.

A search of the car later uncovered a purse containing a woman's driving licence and bank cards, jurors were told.

David McLean, 31, and 25-year-old Ryan Gilmour are on trial for a fourth day in the Scottish capital, where they deny trying to kill two police officers.

They are accused of the attempted murder of Pc Deborah Lawson and Pc Robert Fitzsimmons by striking them repeatedly with a car in Banner Drive on October 23 last year.

Detective Constable Stephen McGrath, 33, told the trial he was on night shift on the Sunday in question when he was called to the incident.

After arriving, he was told a member of the public had reported a vehicle on fire in Lennox Gardens.

He agreed with advocate depute Tim Niven-Smith, prosecuting, that police considered the two events might be connected.

He further agreed he had "suspicions'' about the vehicle because there were no markings on the number plate to indicate which garage it had been bought from.

"I suspected it may have been a stolen vehicle,'' the witness said.

The court heard the two locations were around three kilometres - less than two miles - apart and that the fire had been put out by the time Mr McGrath arrived at the scene.

Crime scene manager Detective Sergeant Mark McLennan, 39, told the court the damage to the car was such that police did not expect to be able to recover forensic samples from it.

He described how a box of what seemed to be medication was found within the car, as was a purse containing a woman's driving licence and a selection of bank cards.

The court later heard how DNA matching the profile of the two accused was found on the boot catch of the car.

Jamie Horsburgh, 35, a forensic scientist with the Scottish Police Authority, said he swabbed areas of the vehicle and recovered major and minor male DNA profiles from the catch.

He told the trial it was more than a billion times more likely that the DNA originated from Gilmour and McLean than from other, unrelated people.

"In our opinion, the presence of DNA matching Ryan Gilmour and David McLean on the boot catch could be explained that they had handled / used this area of the car, however other explanations may exist,'' he said.

The Crown alleges McLean and Gilmour attempted to murder the two officers by reversing a Nissan Qashqai bearing false number plates towards them and repeatedly hitting them with the vehicle "to the danger of their lives''.

They are also accused of wilfully setting fire to the vehicle and attempting to pervert the course of justice - charges they deny.

The trial, before judge Lord Summers, continues on Friday