‘One of the boys attacked the driver’

THE High Court was told that two men allegedly attacked a taxi and its driver before killing Brian Fox i n the street moments later.

Connell Grieve, one of Adam Valentine’s alleged assault victims, told the court that the taxi he entered on the Nethergate had been attacked by two men he identified as Wes Reid and Valentine.

Mr Grieve, 24, from Selkirk, said he and his friends had visited the Draffens and Abandon Ship bars in Dundee before heading for the Nethergate taxi rank sometime between midnight and 1am.

Advocate depute Mark McGuire asked how many people were at the rank, to which Mr Grieve replied: “A considerable amount... it was the case a taxi would pull up and people would get in and the queue would move up.”

Mr Grieve said that “three people approaching the taxi rank from the Mecca Bingo side of the street... two males and one female roughly the same age as me” had given him cause for concern.

Asked if he could identify the two males i n question, he pointed at Reid and Valentine in the dock. Mr Grieve added: “They seemed to approach quite arrogantly. We ( my friends and I) looked at each other as if something could happen. They looked quite full of themselves.”

The jury heard that Mr Grieve and his party then tried to enter the next taxi that approached, as they were at the front of the queue.

He said: “As we went to get in, the party (of two males and one female) approached us. At that point the female tried to open the door and that’s where my girlfriend was sitting.

“They opened the door and tried to go towards her as if they thought the taxi was theirs. She tried to push them away and closed the door – whereafter the boys started to hit the back of the taxi.

“After that the driver drove a small distance and stopped. The driver opened his door to get out to almost question why the boy had been hitting the taxi and at that point one of the boys attacked the taxi driver and hit his head on the roof of the door.”

Mr Grieve explained the driver had sought to defend himself, putting his arms up in a guard-style pose covering his chest to imitate what he said the driver had been doing.

He then said the driver had been able to pull away, at which point his friend phoned the police to advise of a “commotion” at the rank.