A man accused of causing a crash that paralysed a young Ellon woman claims he swapped seats with his passenger seconds after the collision.
Gavin Coull is alleged to have driven his black BMW 3 series into the back of a red Fiesta – causing life-changing injuries Ellen Stickle.
The 27-year-old Ellon care home worker had just been picked up by her then-boyfriend Callum McIntyre, who previously told the trial that Coull’s car smashed into them from out of nowhere.
Coull, 32, of Alva Crescent, Fraserburgh, denies the charges and has lodged a special defence of incrimination, claiming another man – Jamie Dingwall – was driving the black BMW at the time.
On day three of the trial at Peterhead Sheriff Court, Coull’s police interview was played to the jury.
In it, he repeatedly claims that he was not driving the black BMW at the time of the crash on March 11 2021.
Giving evidence, the lead investigating officer Pc Timothy Adie said he conducted the interview with Coull on July 8 2021.
Coull appears without any solicitor and tells the officers that he and Jamie Dingwall had been driving to Aberdeen to retrieve one of his jackets from Dingwall’s flat in Tillydrone.
Swapping seats in aftermath
“It was quite expensive, a North Face one,” he states and goes on to say the pair had taken a direct route to Aberdeen from Fraserburgh, going through Mintlaw.
“We swapped at Clola,” Coull continues. “I didn’t feel well. I had taken my night-time medication. They don’t usually do anything to me, but when we got to Ellon I asked him if he would drive for me – that’s when we swapped seats.
“I felt sick and drowsy. The next thing I remember was hearing ‘f***’ – quite loudly. I looked up and saw the back of a car. It was seconds and that was it.
“It felt like some time passed before I came to.
“I heard him saying ‘f*** I will get the jail for this – swap to the driver’s seat’.
“I just went along with it. Next thing I knew he was climbing over me to the [passenger’s] seat, and I just went over to the driver’s seat.
“I hit my head on the airbag – that’s all I can remember.”
Accused man denies driving
During the three-hour long interview, Coull repeatedly states he was not driving, insisting Jamie Dingwall got behind the wheel “before we got to Ellon, at Clola I think”.
Later – and after CCTV footage was referred to showing his car driving at high speed through Mintlaw – Coull states it “could have been Mintlaw” when he asked Dingwall to take over.
Coull is asked to describe what happened in the moments before the crash on the A90, and he tells officers he thought he saw a white van in the slow lane which he believed was hiding the red Fiesta from their view.
“I just think it had come up off the slip road,” Coull says. “I had just had a text from my mum or my sister. I was distracted.”
Pc Adie informs Coull that other footage from a bus on the other side of the road shows no other vehicles on the road and that the red Fiesta was on the dual carriageway from Ellon.
“It wasn’t on the slip road, you have approached it at high speed,” Pc Adie says.
Coull replies: “If that’s what happened, that’s what happened – I wasn’t driving.”
Snapchat video shown
When asked about the Snapchat video filming the speedometer of his car doing 100mph, Coull admitted he had recorded it.
Pc Adie asks: “What did you record?” He answers: “Just the music, the speedo.”
Constable Adie told the court the time shown on the dashboard was 10.12pm.
During the interview with Coull, the police officer asks Coull if he had uploaded it that night and Coull replies: “Yes. I took it when he [Dingwall] was driving. I was sitting in the passenger seat.”
The jury was shown the footage again, which shows a close-up of a car’s speedometer reaching 100mph with background noise of a revving engine.
A male voice can be heard saying ‘that’s a hundred’ and ‘are you topping that?’ and ‘show me the moves bruv’ before the footage was stopped.
As the interview continues, Coull is asked about a text message he received at 10.22pm from his mother, which read ‘wtf**k are you doing on your snapchat’ – and again he reiterates that he “was not driving”.
It is then put to Coull that he was driving the car and was filming at the same time – and he again denies driving.
‘If I am found guilty, then it’s been a major miscarriage’
Pc Adie then says to Coull: “We have an exhaustive list of evidence that says you were driving, when asked at the scene you didn’t hesitate – you identified yourself as the driver.”
Coull answers: “It wasn’t me. I know I did say that it was silly. My head was all over the place.
“If all this goes through and I am found guilty, then it’s been a major miscarriage.”
Pc Adie asks Coull if he really wants them to believe that he and Dingwall swapped seats at the crash scene without leaving the car, adding: “The two of you – grown men – would have got stuck in a fairly compromising position?
“The officer who arrived at the scene moments after found you in the driver’s seat. It all points to you being the driver.”
Coull answers: “It is absolutely perplexing. I wasn’t driving that car.”
The jury previously heard from Jamie Dingwall who gave evidence to say he was a passenger in Coull’s black BMW and that he had been “wasted”.
The court heard a blood sample taken from Coull hours after the crash showed he had a cocktail of prescription drugs in his system, including high levels of dihydrocodeine and diazepam.
The trial, before Sheriff Philip Mann, continues.
