Witness said he spotted three youths on Steinish road 26/5/13
A Lewis man told a murder trial that he was suspicious of three youths wearing hooded
tops he spotted walking the road to Steinish, outside Stornoway, on a night he believed
was Tuesday 22nd November 2011.
Johnathan Mackinnon and Stefan Millar, both 22 years, deny murdering Liam Aitchison
in Steinish.
The prosecution previously told the trial it believes the teenager was killed in
a derelict house in Steinish in the early hours of Wednesday 23 November 2011.
Calum Smith was the first witness called by Mr Mackinnon’s defence lawyer Iain Patterson
at Glasgow High Court on Friday.
Divinity student Mr Smith, 46, lives in Stewartfield, on the road leading into Steinish
village.
He told the court he was about to take his car off the main road and into his driveway
as he usually did in the evenings when he spotted three youths going past his house.
He said: “The first reason I was suspicious was because I had never seen them before
or since.”
Mr Smith believed the time was between 8pm and 10pm because normally at that “time
every night I go and take the car off the road.”
“They were young lads, I would say. I would say they about twenties or late teens.”
He could not remember the date.
Counsel Iain Patterson recounted what Mr Smith said in a police statement, given
to two police officers at his home on 5 December 2011: “On an night I (Calum Smith)
can state was between Monday 21st November and Thursday 24th November I observed
three young males walking past my house in Stewartfield.”
The lawyer said Mr Smith told police at the time that he couldn’t identify the particular
night but worked out the probable date with his wife because it coincided with an
important meeting being held by his church denomination in Inverness. Mr Smith had
told police he recalled making a phone call to find out the outcome of that church
meeting.
Mr Smith told the court: “I recall that now.”
Mr Patterson continued reading Mr Smth’s statement where Mr Smith reckoned the date
was the 22nd November but could not be certain.
In the statement Mr Smith had said: “I rarely see groups of youths passing my house
on a week night.”
Mr Smith confirmed to the court: “That’s correct.”
Mr Paterson said the statement read: “Each of the youths were carrying a plastci
bag.
The witness told Mr Patterson: “That’s wrong. That would have looked out of place.
No, the three of them were not carrying bags.”
Mr Patterson said Mr Smith told police he tended to “lean towards the 22nd as the
date he saw the youths.
Mr Smith’s statement indicated all three males were carrying bags- they “all appeared
to be planplastic bags but I think they all had them wrapped up.”
Mr Smith told the lawyer he didn’t remember that part.
He added: “I remember exactly what happened as if it happened yesterday.”
He told the court it looked so suspicious to him that he I checked his car for damage.
In cross examination, prosecutor Iain McSporran asked: “You were trying to work with
your wife other things which were going on to narrow the date down.”
“You tend to lean towards the 22nd.”
The witness replied: “That’s as much as I can say.”
He said there was a turn-off into the Redburn scheme further down the road but he
did not know if the youths went in there or continued to walk into Steinish.
Mr Smith was later asked about the weather the evening he saw the youths he told
the court about.
He said it was a “good dry night though the youths had their hoods up.”
When told the court heard evidence that it was so wet on the 22nd November that “people
go soaked” he replied: “No. Not at all.”
Johnathan Mackinnon and Stefan Millar, both 22 years, deny the murder of Liam Aitchison.
The trial, before judge Lord Kinclaven, at Glasgow High Court continues.