Accused found girlfriend ‘bleeding out’ on the floor

TRIAL: Angus man who denies murdering partner ‘had been in the shower’

An Angus farm worker accused of murdering his girlfriend claims he found her “bleeding out” on the kitchen floor.

Keith Rizzo told police he had been taking a shower at Neomi Smith’s flat in Brechin and emerged to find her covered in blood and gasping for breath.

Rizzo, 23, is standing trial at the High Court in Glasgow accused of stabbing and choking Ms Smith, 23, to death at her home on June 9 last year.

A recording of a three-hour police interview from that night was played to jurors yesterday.

On the tape, Rizzo, 23, said he had been in a local bar, Hudsons, with his partner and other friends earlier that evening.

He said: “I came home and I had been in the shower for 10 minutes.

“When I came out, I found my girlfriend lying on the floor bleeding out pretty much.

“I ran over to her and tried to speak to her.

“I lifted her head up and she was just gasping for breath. I got up and ran downstairs to see the neighbour and then we came back up.

“After that we called the police.”

His first 30-minute interview with detectives from earlier in the day was also played to jurors. In it, Rizzo said: “I touched her to see if she was OK. I saw the glass and blood. I just knew that she was gone.

“I wish I never went for the shower.” The court previously heard the care worker’s unresponsive and bloodied body was discovered by emergency workers in the Swan Street property after they were called by a neighbour at around 1am.

One of the police officers who went to the scene said Rizzo was found outside in bare bloodied feet, and was placed inside a patrol car.

Constable Stuart Gillies said Rizzo asked him repeatedly if Ms Smith was alive before adding “have you ever held your wife or girlfriend in your arms while she died?”

He said the accused told him he heard a “thump or bang” while he was in the shower before he “found her on the floor”.

PC Gillies said Rizzo reacted “angrily and quite violently” when he was arrested and cautioned on suspicion of murder.

“He pushed his arms out and I thought he was going to punch me,” he said.

“He was shouting and swearing. “Due to his conduct, he was taken to the ground.”

When he was taken to the charge bar at Bell Street police headquarters in Dundee, Rizzo was found to have scratches to his lower back and a graze to his elbow.

Mr Gillies said Rizzo claimed he had suffered the injuries during his arrest.

Defending, Donald Findlay QC, asked why there were differences between the words in PC Gillies’ notebook from the time of the interaction with Rizzo and an operational statement written around three hours later.

PC Gillies said time constraints and safety concerns can often prevent notes from being taken until some time after.

He said it was a “mistake” not to copy the notes verbatim from his notebook and described it as a “schoolboy error”.

In addition to the murder charge, Rizzo is accused of assaulting Miss Smith to her injury and danger of life between May 5 and June 8 2019, assaulting three former partners and threatening another some time between December 2014 and May 2019. He denies all the charges.

The trial, before Lady Rae, continues.

Neomi Smith, who died in her Brechin flat last year.