Murder accused wanted to "intimidate and bully" Steven Donaldson, court hears

A woman's relationship with a former boyfriend she is accused of murdering was "far from over", a court heard today.

Tasmin Glass had gone out with Steven Donaldson and was due him £1000 from an insurance payment following a car accident.

Her counsel Mark Stewart QC said she had paid back more than £4000 due to Mr Donaldson and his friends said he was not too bothered about the money.

Mr Stewart said the relationship between them was "far from over" and the outstanding sum far from an issue that needed "a drastic solution".

"They were talking about having a family. They were talking about buying a house. They were talking about moving halfway round the world where Mr Donaldson can take up a different job, a better job," he said.

He said that Glass's co-accused Steven Dickie and Callum Davidson had themselves decided to embark on a confrontation with Mr Donaldson.

Mr Stewart said it was initially intended to be an act of intimidation and bullying which got "grossly out of hand."

"There is no credible evidence of any actual agreement between Tasmin Glass and either of these men that they should attend at Peter Pan park and assault Mr Donaldson," he said.

Defence counsel Ian Duguid QC, for Steven Dickie, said co-accused Callum Davidson was "a gratuitously violent man and also a blatantly dishonest man".

He said: "His dishonesty is what the prosecutor is just forgetting about in her invitation to you to convict Steven Dickie."

He told jurors at the High Court in Edinburgh: "Callum Davidson is doing everything he can to get Steven Dickie convicted."

Dickie and Davidson, both 24, and Glass, 20, from Kirriemuir, have denied murdering offshore worker Steven Donaldson, 27, from Arbroath, on June 6 last year.

They are alleged to have arranged to meet Mr Donaldson at Peter Pan play park at Kirrie Hill, in Kirriemuir, in Angus, and struck him on the head and body before transporting him to Loch of Kinnordy nature reserve car park where he was repeatedly struck on the head and body with a knife and baseball bat, repeatedly struck on the head and neck with "an unknown heavy, bladed instrument" and set on fire.

Mr Duguid said there was no forensic evidence linking Dickie to the crime and jurors would have to convict on the "say so" of Dickie and his girlfriend Claire Ogston whom he described as "a couple of proven liars".

The defence counsel told jurors the discerning judgement on Dickie would be to acquit him of the murder.

Mr Duguid said Tasmin Glass had money problems. He told the court: "The person trying to make this out to be a non-money issue is Callum Davidson."

Jonathan Crowe, counsel for Davidson, said he "vehemently denied the accusations" levelled at him in the trial.

Mr Crowe said: "Steven Dickie told you he was a determined and accomplished liar. He agreed that nobody in their right mind should believe a word he said."

He said that Davidson had "quite candidly" told the court that he took part in an initial assault on Mr Donaldson at the Peter Pan park before Dickie then attacked him. After it Davidson saw blood on Dickie and a knife in his hand.

"Callum Davidson was not part of a plan to assault Steven Donaldson with a lethal weapon. He did not want involved and he told you that," he said.

The trial before Lord Pentand continues.