A man who was allegedly murdered outside a Peterhead property had gone there to rob the flat’s owner of his drugs, a court has been told.
Luke Allan and his brother Ethan Carlyle are both accused of stabbing dad-of-two Andrew Ross to death in February last year.
Allan, 28 and Carlyle, 22, are also on trial for stabbing Mr Ross’ friend Brian Middleton, who gave evidence today.
Taking to the witness stand, Mr Middleton, 38, told the court that both he and Mr Ross had gone to the Ives Road flat on the night of February 5 to rob drugs from Allan.
“We went to bump drugs, to not pay for them,” Mr Middleton explained.
Advocate depute Lindsey Dalziel asked Mr Middleton if anyone else had been with them when they arrived the property in his white van.
He replied: “Ferret was in the back of the van.”
He explained that Ferret was the nickname given to Christopher Lowe.
Ms Dalziel asked what had happened after he and Mr Ross knocked on the door of Allan’s flat.
He said: “Both the brothers came to the door. Andy [Mr Ross] went into the kitchen and I started looking around the living room for their stash.”
Mr Middleton told the jury that he found a small Tupperware box hidden behind a fire in the living room.
He continued to say he could hear “shouting and screaming” coming from the kitchen and noticed Mr Ross had a crowbar.
“He must have whipped it out of his trousers,” Mr Middleton said. “I didn’t know he had it.”
“He was threatening them with it.”
‘I saw Luke and his brother standing over Andy’
Ms Dalziel asked if he had heard one of the kitchen drawers rattling and if he thought knives might have been removed.
He said: “I don’t know. I was in the lobby, I said to Andy ‘we need to leave’.
“We started running. Andy was behind me. We got outside, I jumped the wall, but Andy must have tripped.
“I saw Luke and his brother standing over him – Andy was on the ground lying against the wall.”
He told the court that Carlyle had “swiped his knife” at him and “caught me on the side” before he ran away.
Under cross-examination by Carlyle’s defence counsel Gareth Jones KC, Mr Middleton admitted that he and Mr Ross, as well as Mr Lowe, had all been taking class A drugs during the day and had agreed they would go and steal more from Allan.
“You parked your van a distance away in order to maintain an element of surprise,” Mr Jones asked.
“Yes,” replied Mr Middleton.
“And you were there to use force if necessary?”
“Yes,” he replied.
Mr Jones then suggested that he had heard Mr Ross shouting in the kitchen and that he had been saying he ‘would f****** kill them’ and ‘take their f****** eyes out’?
“Possibly,” Mr Middleton replied.
‘We just wanted to steal his drugs’
Brian McConnachie KC, defence counsel for Allan, asked Mr Middleton if Andrew Ross had been “excited” about going to steal drugs.
“He was up for it a little bit, yes,” he answered.
Mr McConnachie went on: “This was three drug-fuelled men attacking a house intent on carrying out a robbery?”
“Yes,” replied Mr Middleton.
“You were in there for eight minutes terrorising Luke Allan and his brother?” Mr McConnachie asked.
“No, I was searching for the drugs,” he replied.
“It must have been terrifying for them, two men bursting in, and armed?” Mr McConnachie said.
Mr Middleton said: “To a normal person, but they were drug dealers. We just wanted to steal his drugs.”
Brothers deny charges
Allan and Carlyle are each accused of pursuing Mr Ross, repeatedly striking him on the head and body with knives and murdering him.
Both are further accused of assaulting Mr Middleton to his severe injury by pursuing him and striking him on the body with a knife.
Allan faces three additional charges under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
It’s alleged he was concerned in the supply of cocaine and cannabis from a property on Ives Road property between January 1 2020 and February 5 2023.
He is also accused of possession of the class B drug methylmethcathinone – known as MCAT – on the date of Mr Ross’ alleged murder.
The trial, before Sheriff Graham Buchanan, continues.
