The man accused of murdering a grandad by pushing him down stairs asked his stepdaughter not to tell anyone what happened or else he could be done for manslaughter, a jury has been told.
Tristan Simpson is on trial at the High Court in Aberdeen accused of murdering his wife’s mother’s partner Bob Park, 59, by shoving him down stairs in Oldmeldrum in 2014.
The 46-year-old, from Dyce, denies murder.
On the second day of the trial, Charlie Simpson, Tristan’s stepdaughter, gave evidence about the incident, which happened during a birthday celebration at their home on Coutens Place on May 3 2014.
She told of hearing Mr Parks say “get your hands off me” seconds before the incident, and that her father had asked her not to tell anyone about the “kerfuffle” between the men.
Ms Simpson who is 23 but was just 13 at the time of the incident, said she was sober and clear-headed that night.
She described chatting with Simpson in her bedroom when Mr Parks, who she viewed as her grandfather, came in acting oddly.
Under questioning from advocate depute Alex Prentice KC, she told the court: “Bob seemed considerably drunk.
“I remember him coming into the room and not really saying anything.
“Myself and Tristan laughed because he was so drunk he wasn’t even saying anything.”
Ms Simpson said Mr Parks then made a comment about something being “weird”, and she became concerned about whether or not he was okay.
The witness said Simpson then told Mr Parks he needed to either go to bed or go outside for a cigarette and escorted him from the room.
She continued: “Tristan said ‘Come on, we’ll go outside for a fag together’, and they started walking towards the stairs.”
‘I saw Tristan standing at the top of the stairs in complete shock’
As the men continued along the hallway, they were lost to view, although Ms Simpson said she could still hear them.
She went on: “I just remember him being really drunk and saying he didn’t want to go downstairs.
“I remember him saying ‘get your hands off me, I can walk myself’.
“I heard them at the top of the stairs having a kerfuffle.”
Ms Simpson described hearing noises like bumps or brushes against a wall and the creaking of the bannister, before a louder noise, which caused her to rush out of her room to see what had happened.
“I saw Tristan standing at the top of the stairs in complete shock, looking down the stairs,” she continued. “I realised it was Bob that had fallen down the stairs.”
Ms Simpson said she was “hysterical” as she rushed to Mr Parks and tried to help him.
After an ambulance had taken Mr Parks away, she questioned her stepdad about the events.
She told the court: “I said ‘what happened?’.
“He said ‘did you see what happened?’
“I said ‘no, did you have a fight?’ I think he said yes, Bob had tried to push him off, they had a kerfuffle and Bob had fallen down the stairs.
“I said ‘did you push him?’.
“He said ‘no, but if anyone asks you about it you can’t say anything about it or that we had a kerfuffle, because if he does die I’ll get done for manslaughter’.”
Ms Simpson went on: “I remember distinctly because it seemed like such a severe word and it scared me because I thought maybe he will die.”
‘I was very much under the impression at that time that it was an accident’
Cross-examining the witness, defence counsel Iain Paterson asked Ms Simpson to expand on what she meant be “kerfuffle”.
She said: “Kerfuffle in the sense of a commotion. There was bumping around as if they were having some sort of struggle.”
Part of Ms Simpson’s police statement from the time of the incident was read to the jury.
In it, she said Simpson had told Mr Parks: “You can either go to bed or I can escort you outside because I’m not having you scaring my kids.”
Mr Paterson put it to the witness that what Simpson had been trying to get across, in speaking to his daughter, is that it was an accident.
She said: “That’s what he was trying to say, that an accident had caused Bob to fall down the stairs but the lead up to that makes it look like he’d done something wrong so I couldn’t say anything about that.
“I was very much under the impression at that time that it was an accident.”
Assault charges dropped
Mr Paterson said: “In relation to the conversation, Tristan has a slightly different recollection of that. Could you be mistaken about what was said?”
Ms Simpson replied: “I definitely couldn’t tell you word-for-word the exact conversation or if I misremembered the order.
“He definitely said the word ‘manslaughter’ because it sounded like such a serious word. It stuck in my head.”
The jury also heard extracts from interviews Simpson gave to the police both shortly after the incident in 2014 and when he was arrested in 2021.
In them, he insisted Mr Parks had fallen and that he had been unable to do anything to save him.
Simpson, of Victoria Street, Dyce, had faced six other charges of assault, but these have now been dropped and he has been acquitted in relation to them all.
The trial, before Lady Drummond, continues.
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