A murder accused made a prison cell confession, boasting he had stabbed “the boy” more than 25 times, a jury was told yesterday.
But Steven Dickie, 24, flatly denied the accusation during a second day of evidence in his own defence at the High Court in Edinburgh.
He also rejected a claim that he had offered his best friend Callum
Davidson, 24, a £10,000 pay-off to take the blame for killing Steven
Donaldson in Kirriemuir last summer.
The pair are on trial for the murder of the 27-year-old oil worker from
Arbroath, along with a third co-accused, 20-year-old Tasmin Glass.
Prosecutors allege the trio, who are all from Kirriemuir, arranged to meet Mr Donaldson – Glass’s ex-boyfriend – at the town’s Peter Pan playpark, then assaulted him.
They are then accused of taking him to the Loch of Kinnordy nature reserve, where he was beaten with instruments before he and his car were set on fire.
All three deny the charges.
On the 15th day of the trial yesterday, tyre fitter Dickie denied being a “determined and accomplished liar” who had told “a succession of different parcels of lies” in an effort to throw the others “under the bus”.
The trial heard Dickie admit under cross examination by Jonathan Crowe, counsel for Davidson, that he had assault convictions from Forfar Sheriff Court in 2016 and Perth Sheriff Court in 2017.
Dickie said he had been on remand in Perth prison since June last year and was asked by Mr Crowe about the alleged confession to a fellow inmate.
“Did you not make certain admissions that Callum (Davidson) had punched the boy and you had pulled him out of the way and stabbed him 26 times?
“Did you also say you’d offered Mr Davidson £10,000 to take the blame and were you boasting to a certain extent about killing the boy?” asked Mr Crowe.
“Absolutely not,” replied Dickie.
In cross-examination, Mark Stewart, counsel for Glass, suggested to Dickie: “You have spent the entire time since June 2018 telling a parcel of lies, and not just one parcel of lies, you have told a succession of parcels of lies.
Mr Stewart told him: “You are prepared to say anything at all about anyone at all in an attempt to get yourself out from what you were involved in with Mr Donaldson on the sixth of June last year.”
“No, I didn’t do it,” Dickie replied.
Turning to the night of June 6,
advocate depute Ashley Edwards put it to Dickie that there had been a conversation and a phone call with Glass, with whom he was having a sexual relationship, about Mr Donaldson and that “you and Callum Davidson were to be a team again that night.
“She said to you ‘can you sort the situation’ and you agreed?”
“No,” Dickie responded.
The trial continues.