One of the last messages an alleged high-rise murder victim sent stated that he’d “finished” with the woman accused of killing him, a court has heard.
Elizabeth Sweeney, also known as Lizzy, is on trial at the High Court in Aberdeen accused of murdering boyfriend Neil Jolly, 51, by assaulting him and repeatedly striking him to the head and body with a kettle between June 22 and 26 2023.
Sweeney, 36, is also facing a charge of attempting to conceal the murder by washing Mr Jolly in a shower at his flat in Marischal Court and covering his body with a duvet cover.
She is additionally accused of attempting to destroy evidence by cleaning the kettle.
Sweeney – a drug addict and a prostitute at the time – denies all the charges against her and has lodged a special defence of self-defence.
She claims she woke up in the early hours of June 25 2023 to find Mr Jolly raping her.
‘He wasn’t answering’
On the fourth day of trial, the partner of Mr Jolly’s son, Jenny Williamson, 30, told the court she had been messaging the 51-year-old around June 22 2023 after she saw him on Union Street with what appeared to be bruises on his face.
In response to her asking if he was “staying out of trouble”, Neil Jolly volunteered that he was “finished with it”.
Ms Williamson asked him what he meant, to which Mr Jolly replied: “That woman”.
She told advocate depute Erin Campbell that this was the last contact she had with Mr Jolly despite her repeatedly messaging him.
“You have been trying to contact Mr Jolly?” the advocate depute asked Ms Williamson.
“Yes, he wasn’t answering,” she replied.
Ms Campbell then asked how long Ms Williamson had been texting Mr Jolly before she found out he was dead.
“About two days,” she replied.
During cross-examination, defence advocate Ian Duguid KC quizzed Ms Williamson about where Mr Jolly told her he had gotten the bruises on his face.
Ms Williamson said he’d told her he had had an issue with “an old cellmate”.
The defence lawyer then asked her why Mr Jolly had received a prison sentence, to which she replied that it was for breaching a non-harassment order put in place to prevent him from approaching a former partner.
Mr Duguid then asked Ms Williamson whether she was aware that Mr Jolly had 17 offences relating to breaches of a court order involving the same woman, all in 2022.
“I just know about the last one, that’s all,” she replied.
‘Caked’ in blood
Jurors also heard evidence from Karl Howland, 30, who provided a statement to police where he stated he had seen Sweeney wearing a pair of Nike Air Force trainers that were “caked in blood” in the days after Mr Jolly’s death.
“I can’t remember what she had on her top half, but it was covered in blood,” the statement said, adding: “Some of the blood looked fresh on the shoes and some of the blood looked black like it was dried in.”
Mr Howland’s statement was similar to witness Matthew Green’s, who also said he saw Sweeney wearing bloody trainers.
“It looked like she had stepped in a puddle of it,” Mr Green told jurors last week.
The trial, before Judge Andrew Miller, continues.
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