Court told accused was looking ‘white’

Latvian national Aldis Minakovskis, 24, is on trial accused of stabbing Aigars Upieneks, 34, on December 23 2015 at a flat in the city’s Thurso Crescent.

At the High Court i n Aberdeen, Vladimirs Vanuhovs, 34, said he worked with the accused at the A1 Car Wash on East Dock Street around the time of the incident, along with several other Russians, Latvians and Bulgarians.

Mr Vanuhovs, originally of Russia, was staying at his partner’s flat at Dallfield Court on night of December 23 and the early hours of December 24. He said it was at about 3.30am on December 24 that Minakovskis called him and woke him up to say he might have killed someone at the Russian’s flat. Mr Vanuhovs added: “I think it sounded like he was running, like he was breathing heavily and he said he might have killed someone. He wasn’t sure of that himself. I thought that he was joking”. The court also heard extracts of Mr Vanuhovs’ statement that he gave to police on December 24. It said: “Aldis said to me they (Aldis and Aigars) had a fight and the other guy (Aigars) was strangling him with his knee. “Aldis found anything he could reach to defend himself and reached for a knife in the kitchen in my flat and Aldis stabbed him in the side. Aigars ran away. Aldis said he stood up and chased the man out of the flat and Aldis stabbed him again in the back with the knife.”

Mr Vanuhovs said that as Minakovskis owed him £100 and the incident had apparently happened at his flat, he took a taxi to a friend’s property on Dee Place, where he met the accused.

Asked to describe Minakovskis’ mood, Mr Vanuhovs said: “To be honest, he was white. He wasn’t talking.”

Minakovskis went to sleep for a couple of hours at Dee Place, before going to see a solicitor with Mr Vanuhovs.

They were then questioned by police and Mr Vanuhovs said he wasn’t allowed back in his flat for six months.

Minakovskis denies struggling with Mr Upieneks before striking him on the body with a knife, chasing him into a common close before again repeatedly striking him and murdering him.

The trial continues.

A COURT has been told of the moment a man accused of murder phoned a colleague to say he might have killed someone.

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