A crash victim has told a jury that her ex-boyfriend deliberately ploughed his car into railings, telling her seconds before the impact: “My suicide note is ready and you’re coming with me.”
George ‘Brian’ Alden, 36, is on trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he faces charges of endangering the life of his ex-girlfriend Chantelle Eisma-Clinch by driving his red Citroen C4 dangerously while being pursued by several police cars.
It is alleged Alden accelerated to excessive speeds before mounting a pavement and colliding with railings on Crown Street in the city centre of Aberdeen.
The car then flipped over and ended up on its roof in the middle of the street.
As a result of the crash, Ms Eisma-Clinch spent around two weeks in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
Alden admits being over the drink-drive limit but denies driving dangerously, causing serious injury and endangering the life of Ms Eisma-Clinch on October 11 2022.
He also denies assaulting her by seizing her by the neck, pushing her against railings and shoving her to the ground.
‘I was screaming at him to stop’
Giving evidence for the second day, Ms Eisma-Clinch was asked by fiscal depute Alan Townsend to outline what she remembered about the final moments before the crash.
She described Alden as “desperate” as he realised police were pursuing him and saw crashing his car as “the only way out” even if it “killed us both”.
The 20-year-old student said he sped through a red light on Union Street and told her: “See you on the other side.”
“I took that to mean I was going to die,” Ms Eisma-Clinch said.
She continued: “I was screaming at him to stop but he wouldn’t stop for the police. That was his only way out, whether it killed us both – it didn’t matter.
“He didn’t care if I died.”
She claimed during the short journey between Golden Square and the site of the crash, Alden also told her: “My suicide note is ready and you’re coming with me.”
Ms Eisma-Clinch said she had asked herself “a million times” following the crash why Alden “made that decision”.
“I think crashing into a wall for him was the easiest option,” she said.
“I remember him saying ‘f*** this, I’m just going to drive. I don’t care anymore.’
“I told him to give me the keys – I was trying to stop him from driving.”
Ex claims Alden ran knife across her skin
Ms Eisma-Clinch, a law student, also described her relationship with Alden as one in which he was “incredibly controlling” and “jealous”.
She claims that on one occasion last year, she came home from work to find Alden had drunk an entire bottle of vodka and he grabbed her and ran a knife over her skin.
Alden did this while making threats to kill men he believed she was having an affair with, Ms Eisma-Clinch said.
Passenger claims crash can’t be accident
During cross-examination, defence solicitor Graham Robertson KC suggested to Ms Eisma-Clinch that she was not telling the truth when she said Alden “was going to kill himself or kill you”.
She replied: “The lack of emotion on his face, me asking him to stop and the motion of turning the steering wheel into a wall – how can that be considered an accident?”
“But what if he was taking a corner and an accident occurred?” Mr Robertson asked.
“There were no streets for him to turn into – it was a wall,” Ms Eisma-Clinch said, adding: “He decided to go into that wall and take his own life and my life too.”
The trial, before Sheriff Ian Wallace, continues.
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