A man who met murder-accused Elizabeth Sweeney in Aberdeen city centre claims she told him she had “just murdered someone” when he quizzed her about blood on her trainers.
Elizabeth Sweeney, also known as Lizzy, is on trial at the High Court in Aberdeen accused of violently assaulting boyfriend Neil Jolly, 51, before repeatedly striking him to the head and body with a kettle between June 22 and 26 2023.
She is also facing a charge of attempting to conceal the murder by washing Mr Jolly’s body in a shower at his flat in Marischal Court and covering it with a duvet cover.
It is additionally alleged Sweeney attempted to destroy evidence by cleaning the kettle.
She denies all the charges against her and has lodged a special defence of self-defence.
Sweeney, 36, claims she woke up in the early hours of June 25 2023 to find Mr Jolly raping her.
Looked like accused had stepped in ‘puddle’ of blood
On the third day of trial, witness Matthew Green told police in a statement that he spoke to Sweeney after seeing her chatting to a friend in a doorway on Union Street on June 23 2023.
Mr Green – a belligerent witness who repeatedly stated he did not want to be there – said he saw Sweeney with blood “all over” her trainers.
“It looked like she had stepped in a puddle of it,” he said, adding: “I’ve seen blood before, and it was wet.”
He continued: “I asked her where the blood had come from, and she said ‘I have just f****** murdered someone’.
“She was saying it seriously, but she had a little laugh.”
Defence advocate for Sweeney, Ian Duguid KC, pressed Green on how he was so easily able to see the blood on his client’s trainers just by walking past.
“What was your interest in going towards them in the first place?” the lawyer asked, adding: “You claim you have seen the blood from the street?”
“Yes, I did, because of how much there was,” Green replied.
‘At first, I didn’t believe it’
Another witness, Ian Gray, also told police he saw Sweeney crying on King Street outside a phone box after she had called police to report an assault on Neil Jolly three days later.
When he asked her what was wrong, he stated Sweeney said: “I have a conscience. I’m a good person. I didn’t stab him I only punched him.”
Mr Gray added: “I remember [Sweeney] saying that she had killed someone. At first, I didn’t believe it.”
Advocate depute Erin Campbell then showed Mr Gray – who repeatedly made references to his poor memory – a video of police arriving on the scene following Sweeney’s 999 call.
In it, he is seen telling officers on the street that Sweeney had just told him that she had “murdered somebody”.
“What did she say to you?” Ms Campbell quizzed Mr Gray.
“Something about him trying to have sex with her in her sleep,” he replied, adding it was then that she told him she had killed someone.
‘He deserved it’
Another witness, Matthew Masson, 48, whose girlfriend Beata Baszczuk invited Sweeney to his home in the early hours of June 23 2023 told the court he had heard her say Neil Jolly had “come towards her” and that “he deserved it”.
However, her defence advocate Mr Duguid took issue with Masson’s claim that he had seen blood on Sweeney’s clothes that morning.
“You said there was blood on her t-shirt and blood on her bottoms,” Mr Duguid pressed. “But you can’t really say, can you?”
“Not really, no,” Masson replied.
During her redirect of the witness, the advocate depute Ms Campbell asked Masson: “What did you see on her clothes?”
“Stains,” Masson said.
“What kind of stains,” Ms Campbell pressed.
“Dark stains,” Masson replied.
The trial, before Judge Andrew Miller, will resume on Monday.
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