A woman accused of murdering a former boyfriend had talked about starting a family with him, a court has heard.
Tamsin Glass insisted her relationship with Steven Donaldson was “far from over”, according to her lawyer.
She said she had paid back £4,000 due to Mr Donaldson from an insurance payment following a car accident and was set to pay the final £1,000.
Ms Glass, 20, Steven Dickie and Callum Davidson, both 24, have denied murdering Mr Donaldson, from Arbroath.
Mark Stewart QC, counsel for Ms Glass, said Mr Donaldson’s friends insisted he was not too bothered about the money and the situation did not need “a drastic solution”.
“They were talking about having a family. They were talking about buying a house. They were talking about moving half way round the world where Mr Donaldson can take up a different job, a better job,” he said.
He said that Ms Glass’s co-accused Steven Dickie and Callum Davidson had themselves decided to embark on a confrontation with Mr Donaldson at a Peter Pan park near Kirriemuir.
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.”
Mr Duguid said there was no forensic evidence linking Mr Dickie to the crime and jurors would have to convict on the “say-so” of Mr Davidson and his girlfriend Claire Ogston – whom he described as “a couple of proven liars”.
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.”
Deny murder
Jonathan Crowe, counsel for Mr 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 Mr Davidson had “quite candidly” told the court that he took part in an initial assault on Mr Donaldson at the Peter Pan park before Mr Dickie then attacked him. After that, Mr Davidson said he saw blood on Mr 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.
Mr Dickie, Mr Davidson and Ms Glass, from Kirriemuir, have denied murdering offshore worker Mr Donaldson, 27, on 6 June last year.
They are alleged to have arranged to meet Mr Donaldson at Peter Pan play park at Kirrie Hill, in Angus, and struck him on the head and body.
They are then accused of 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.
The trial before Lord Pentand continues.
Content provided by the BBC. Original piece can be found here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-48128718
