Machine death boy ‘looked like he’d taken a breather’

‘I was shocked and scared’

A MAN accused of killing a teenage colleague by starting up an industrial machine while the youth was inside claimed yesterday that he was not there when the incident happened.

Dean Reynolds, 23, told the High Court in Aberdeen that he thought Michael McLean, 17, was ‘taking a breather’ when he found him unconscious.

The teenager had been helping Reynolds to prepare the cable spooling machine for painting at Denholm MacNamee’s premises in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, in August 2015.

Reynolds told the court he had gone into the ‘paint tent’ at the yard around 12.20pm and discovered Mr McLean lying in the machine.

He said: ‘My mind was all over the place – I didn’t know what I had seen. I was shocked and scared.’

Defence QC Iain Duguid asked Reynolds if he had told other workers it looked like ‘Michael was taking a breather’ when he was found. Reynolds replied: ‘I think so, yes. It looked like that – like he was having a rest.’

The court heard Reynolds told police he did not think Mr McLean would have been able to reach the starting handle for the machine from inside the drum where he was found.

Reynolds, of Keith, Aberdeenshire, denies a charge of culpable homicide.

The incident happened on the last day of Mr McLean’s summer job. His father, who also worked there, tried to give him CPR but the teenager died in hospital six days later.

The court later heard that less than two hours after the incident, Reynolds texted his girlfriend saying he was ‘s ****** g it’. Asked why he had written that Reynolds said: ‘Because I was scared of what I’d seen.’

The trial, before judge Lord Beckett, continues.