A north-east man, accused of murder, told emergency services he saw his alleged victim being beaten up before heading off to an address which turned out not to exist.
Ryan Gibb and Cameron Laurie are on trial accused of killing James Chadwick at his home on Holland Street in Aberdeen overnight on August 31, 2015.
The pair are alleged to have struggled with him, sat on top of him, and to have repeatedly struck him with a dog lead and stamped, punched and kicked his head.
They are also accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice by burying evidence of the crime during the following ten days.
It is alleged they placed Mr Chadwick on a sofa, cleaned blood from him and the floor, falsely told the emergency services they had seen someone else beat him up, disposed of a dog lead used in the attack and discouraged Tracy Gibb from telling people what had happened.
And yesterday, Aberdeen High Court heard a telephone all that Gibb made to the ambulance in the early hours of September 1 last year.
Speaking to call handler Alison McLean, he said he had seen a man being beaten up whom he did not know and had gone into 63E Holland Street in Aberdeen.
The court later heard from ambulance technician Sylvia Currid who responded to the call.
Advocate depute James Keegan asked her: “Do you remember whether you were able to find the address?”
She replied: “As I recall, there was no 63.”
She went on to say that police were on the scene when she arrived and she was stood down because there was no patient to be found.
Gibb, 32, and Laurie, 33, both deny the charges.
The trial, before Lord Burns, continues.