TRAIL OF VIOLENCE
It’s easy to forget, but the violence which led to Shaun’s death was visited on people simply out celebrating the New Year. Here, three of those caught up in the mayhem tell their stories
MICHAEL’S STORY
MICHAEL Smith had a great night on Hogmanay 2016. He’d spent the evening celebrating with his girlfriend, her sister and partner and it was time to go home.
The four of them left Gladstones bar at about 1.30am to walk the short distance to their home in Leith. They were in good spirits.
As they walked along Great Junction Street, Michael stopped outside Dr Bell’s swimming pool to relieve himself.
The street was busy for that time of the morning with revellers heading to or from parties. People were shouting “Happy New Year” to strangers as they walked by.
Michael had his back to the street facing the fence when he felt someone barge into him. He turned and saw Mohammed Ibnomer beside him. It was then he was punched several times on his head and body.
The 38-year-old scaffolder then realised Ibnomer was not alone. The air was menacing with threats and tension.
Michael recalled: “I was drunk. I’d spent Hogmanay as everyone else does. It had been a great night and no trouble at all.
“I had my back to them doing a wee, so I didn’t see them approach me until one of them deliberately bumped into me and then I was being punched.
“On any given day, I would have defended myself and fought back but I’d been drinking, I was with my girlfriend and her family and on top of that there were at least a dozen, if not more, of them.
“My girlfriend dragged me away and we carried on home. It wasn’t until the next morning we got a phone call telling us what then happened outside the pub.”
He added: “When I heard what happened to Shaun, I felt terrible. I thought if I’d fought back they might have all gone away and not made their way to Gladstones and a fight wouldn’t have broken out.
“They attacked me randomly. It doesn’t matter what their defence says about provocation or racist comments outside the pub, because they had clearly set out to cause trouble.
“They couldn’t have known I’d been in Gladstones that night, as far as they were concerned I was a drunk guy they thought would be easy to assault. They didn’t seem to care who they were attacking.
“I couldn’t believe the way the trial went – all those charges dropped, other assaults on innocent members of the public effectively ignored by the prosecution, who made Shaun’s death look like a pub fight gone wrong.
“It’s all wrong what happened to that boy.
“I didn’t know him well, I’d see him in the pub with the Swanson boys now and again and he was a lovely lad.
“Him and his family deserved better justice than they got.”
STEPHEN’S STORY
STEPHEN Swanson was celebrating Hogmanay at his uncle’s pub when the party was interrupted by reports that a friend had been attacked by a group of teenagers.
Stephen and his cousin, Hibs star Danny Swanson, left the pub to go look for their friend and offer assistance. They didn’t find him or the gang.
When they returned to the pub, Gladstones in Leith, a crowd had gathered outside and it looked like trouble was brewing.
Stephen leapt from the car and confronted the youths. What happened in the next few minutes would leave one young father dead and dozens of lives shattered forever.
He said: “I jumped from the car. I was trying to calm them all down.
“My uncle John was punched and someone was shouting, ‘You want stabbed?’, went into his back pocket and came towards me. I was whacked and my nose was burst, I was watching his other hand at his back pocket.
“I was thinking they had knives as three or four of them attacked me, punching me all over the place. I saw something shiny in their hands. It descended into a free-for-all then.”
It wasn’t until the next day, as he was
showering and congealed blood came away in his hand, that he discovered puncture wounds on his head, which were later found to have been caused by sharpened afro combs. Stephen also found bite marks on his shoulder.
CCTV played in court showed Stephen behind a vehicle fighting with several people on his own.
He said: “I managed to get away and ran into the pub. I shouted at people that trouble was happening outside. I picked up pool cues, I wasn’t thinking. I went back outside with them.
“I don’t remember hitting anyone but I felt I had to defend myself.”
Stephen didn’t know his friend Shaun Woodburn was among the many partygoers from the pub who walked outside to see what was going on.
He said almost as quick as the fighting started, it all stopped and it went quiet for a few moments.
Stephen added: “Then Marcus Brown, one of the co-accused who got off during the trial, grabbed a girl and threw her on to the ground.
“Girls were shouting and screaming, their own girls, pals of theirs, and it went nuts again.
“There were loads of different brawls happening.”
He said after that his memories are hazy. He remembers going back into the pub, he remembers hearing someone screaming that Shaun “was on the ground”, he remembers the police had already handcuffed him and he remembers shoving the police officer out of the way to get beside his stricken friend.
Stephen was charged with assault but this was later dropped by the Crown.
He had to undergo a psychological assessment to give video evidence during the trial.
He said: “I wish none of it happened, I wish I hadn’t got involved. I spend my days going over what happened and wish things had been different. “Shaun wasn’t a fighter. They tried to say during the trial he moved as if he was going to hit someone. That wouldn’t have been Shaun.
“I remember once, when we were younger, he stood by and watched me being attacked by someone and he wouldn’t get involved. He didn’t get involved in violence ever, not even if it was his best friend being beat up.
“My own feeling is he’s stepped forward to grab someone out of harm’s way when he was assaulted.
“I maybe shouldn’t have gone for the pool cues, I shouldn’t have got involved. But the people who stood trial are responsible for Shaun’s death.
“They’re the ones who went around the town assaulting strangers. But for them, Shaun would still be here.”