An Aberdeen man has told a jury he thought he was going to die after he was stabbed during a trip to Edinburgh to buy a car.
James Stewart, 46, said he and his brother Peter were both set upon as they were being led into a house for a cup of tea to meet the seller of the vehicle.
He said a youth – who he identified in court as one of the two men facing assault and robbery charges – suddenly spun round and aimed a punch at the left side of his stomach.
He told a jury at the High Court: “I thought I was dying. I knew I had to get my brother help.”
Asked why he didn’t phone for help he claimed he couldn’t concentrate on his phone which was covered in blood.
He said: “I didn’t know if I was going to die. I didn’t know if I was going to see my kids or anyone again. I was in a strange place. I was panicking.”
As he examined the wound in his side he said he saw his brother coming out of the close with one of the accused beside him.
Mr Stewart said he ran back to their car which was parked in the street outside but couldn’t get in because his brother had the key.
He said he saw a stockily-built male with short dark hair and a striped top running towards his brother and tussling with him but, realising he was bleeding heavily himself, went to try to get help.
As a couple he met in a nearby street called for an ambulance for him he said he turned round and saw his brother coming out of his car.
He said: “I didn’t see him driving past just saw him. He came out of the car and took about two steps towards me and said to me: ‘They’ve got me’. He took two more steps forward then he collapsed.”
The jury heard a recording of the 999 call in which Mr Stewart is passed the phone and tells the call handler his brother he can see “serious bleeding” from his brother.
As bystanders battle to save his brother’s life he says: “I can’t get halting it it’s really pretty bad. Peter, are you OK? Peter, who am I?”
As jury was also shown dramatic footage of the moment he collapsed in the street beside a black car parked in a street in the Wardieburn area on 8 April last year as a man standing next to him makes a 999 call.
It’s agreed evidence that Peter was stabbed through the heart and lung and would have died from his injuries without medical intervention.
Under cross examination, Mr Stewart admitted that he and his brother were regular cannabis users.
However, despite being offered immunity from prosecution for drugs offences by the prosecution, he firmly rejected suggestions that he and his brother had gone to Edinburgh with GBP6,500.00 to buy a kilo of cannabis.
Ryan Ellis, 31, and a 17-year-old teenager – who can’t be named for legal reasons – deny seriously assaulting James Stewart and robbing and attempting to murder Peter Stewart in Wardieburn Street West, Edinburgh, on 8 April last year.
The jury heard yesterday that another witness had told police one of the accused had confessed to her that the brothers had been caught in a pre-planned “ambush” to rob them of the cash and a mobile phone.
However, mum-of four Kayleigh Davis, 22, who is expecting her fifth child in in seven weeks time, claimed she had no memory of reporting that she saw one man lying bleeding on the ground and another with “blood coming from his body” run past and throw a makeshift weapon into a hedge.
She told the jury her amnesia was due to the fact that: “I was out of my face on drugs at the time”. She admitted she had been living an “erratic” lifestyle and using cannabis, methadone and valium.
Her police statement, signed by her and read out in court, said that Ellis had confessed that he and his co-accused had lured the two alleged victims to the capital with the promise of a bogus drug deal.
Her words, read to the jury said: “(The teenager) met the guys’ car in Wardieburn and took them into the stair. Ryan said that when the guys followed him into the stair Ryan punched one of the guys in the back of the head then (the teenager) stabbed him
“Ryan said he got involved and ended up getting blood on his clothes while grabbing on to of the guys. Ryan said he had a knife with him but he never stabbed anyone.
“He said that (the teenager) got the money off the guys, and they ran back out of the back door of the stair. He said he cut through the back gardens and went to Kayleigh’s flat, her second name is Prentice and she’s Kevin’s girlfriend.
“Ryan was angry. He was saying he hadn’t got any of the money and that (the teenager) was saying they had not got it.
“He also said he was freaking out about his clothes being covered in blood. He said he binned the clothing. He said he was going into hiding.”
The statement added: “I forgot that Ryan also said that Kev had stolen a Samsung Galaxy from one of the guys from Aberdeen. He said he’d sold it one because he was paranoid about it.”
She also allegedly said in the statement that Ellis later made an unexpected visit to her home. The police officer’s note read: “We started talking about the injured male. Ryan was asking how the guy was and he was shitting himself.
“He told us that he was there with (the teenager), Kev Watts and that it was a drugs deal that had been arranged by the teenager’s uncle James.
“James is in the jail at Aberdeen at the moment. Ryan said that the two guys were coming from Aberdeen to buy a Kilo of heroin with GBP6.000 or GBP6,500.
“Ryan said the plan all along was to rob the guys of the cash as they had no drugs and James set them up.”
The trial, before Lord Glennie, continues.