Involvement ‘not needed’

Defence claims Brian Fox didn’t need to get involved

A MAN allegedly killed by two men at a taxi rank on New Year’s Day “did not need to get involved” in a commotion caused by a taxi’s “erratic” driving, a court has been told.

Brian Fox, 62, died in the early hours of January 1 this year following an incident in Dundee’s Nethergate.

Wes Reid, 20, and Adam Valentine, 25, are on trial charged with his culpable homicide, along with a litany of other offences.

Earlier in proceedings, the trial at the High Court in Edinburgh had been shown CCTV footage of the incident, at around 1.10am, which begins with a taxi pulling out of Union Street and entering the taxi rank from the wrong direction, almost striking people standing in the roadway.

Cross-examining Detective Sergeant Ian Borthwick, who reviewed the footage in the case, Donald Findlay QC, for Reid, suggested “things kicked off” at the taxi rank because of the “dangerous manoeuvre”.

Mr Findlay said: “What you have seen is: a taxi turns left out of Union Street and drives up the Nethergate the wrong way. There’s a road traffic offence for a start.

“It then swings into the taxi rank and appears to nearly hit them.

“And it all kicks off. And it kicks off because of what this taxi did.

“The real trouble seems to be caused by dangerous driving by a taxi driver which provokes an angry response,” Mr Findlay concluded.

“I agree,” Mr Borthwick said. Mr Findlay then described how Mr Fox appears to enter the scene from Union Street and “got involved” in the altercation unfolding in the taxi rank.

The QC added: “What we don’t know is what, if anything, Mr Fox said to the group. You can’t tell from the camera what was going through his mind, what, if anything, he said. This had nothing to do with him and he did not need to get involved with that at all.”

The trial, before Lord Beckett, continues.

The scene in the Nethergate on New Year’s Day.