Steven Donaldson murder accused "facilitated" his death, court hears

A woman accused of murdering a former boyfriend "facilitated" a meeting with him which was followed by a brutal attack on him, a court heard today.

Prosecutor Ashley Edwards QC said Tasmin Glass and her co-accused Steven Dickie and Callum Davidson had each played their part in "a concerted, murderous attack" on offshore worker Steven Donaldson.

She said that Glass, 20, "facilitated and brought about" a meeting with Mr Donaldson in Kirriemuir, in Angus, that was followed by an assault on him.

The advocate depute said a plan was laid down on the evening of June 6 last year that was set in motion and culminated "in the brutal murder of Steven Donaldson".

She told jurors at the High Court in Edinburgh that she submitted that all three accused played their part and all three were responsible for the murder of the 27-year-old.

"The Crown's position is that the accused were acting together from beginning to end, acting together in what is known as concert, that they were part of a common criminal purpose," she said.

"If you hold, as I ask you to do, that they were acting together then each is responsible for the actions of the other," she said.

The prosecutor said: "The plan was a murderous plan throughout, from inception through carrying out, to the brutal and unequivocal result."

The advocate depute said to the jury in her closing address: "The Crown says to you all the accused were acting together. The use of at least one weapon was in the knowledge of all three accused."

She said that by the evening of June 6 an arrangement to meet Mr Donaldson was "not suiting" Glass.

"Pregnancy, money, financial pressures, dealing with a partner or ex-partner and the state of their relationship did not figure in the way Tasmin Glass wanted to spend her evening," said the prosecutor.

She told jurors that they had heard a considerable amount of evidence during the trial and some was "clear and obvious, a flashing red light signaling the guilt of the accused".

Other pieces were not so immediately obvious but could fit together with the bigger pieces, she argued. She said they came together to form a picture of the guilt of the accused.

Glass, Dickie, 24, and Davidson, 24, from Kirriemuir, have denied murdering Mr Donaldson, from Arbroath.

It is alleged that after an arranged meeting at the Peter Pan Play Park at Kirrie Hill he was repeatedly struck on the head and body and then transported to a car park at Loch of Kinnordy nature reserve and struck repeatedly 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.

The trial before judge Lord Pentland continues.