Car attack murder bid brothers guilty

Two brothers who mowed a man down in an attack with a car are facing lengthy jail sentences after a jury convicted them of attempted murder.

Colin Sangster, 27, and Alexander Sangster, 25, pursued Paul Ross in the vehicle before mounting a pavement and striking the pedestrian.

Mr Ross was hit on the body and thrown into the air before landing and sustaining serious injuries in the assault in Brechin.

The victim told the High Court in Edinburgh that in the wake of the attack his left leg was “dangling a bit like a bit of spaghetti” and bone was protruding from a kneecap.

He underwent extensive surgery for fractures to his legs.

The younger brother was heard saying as he and his elder sibling fled the scene: “What the f*** have we done.”

Sangster, of Carberry Crescent, Dundee, and his younger brother, a prisoner in Grampian jail, had both denied attempting to murder Mr Ross, 35, on August 18 2019 at City Road in Brechin.

A jury unanimously convicted the pair of the murder bid. The trial judge, Lord Beckett, said the verdicts were “plainly decisive” and told jurors they were “entirely justified by the evidence”.

The brothers were both under the influence of alcohol when they chased their quarry in the car before attacking him to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement and impairment and to the danger of his life and attempting to murder him following an earlier altercation.

Advocate depute Margaret Barron told jurors: “It was fortunate Paul Ross survived the impact. He was badly hurt, but he survived.”

The prosecutor said evidence in the case clearly pointed to the older brother being the driver of the Renault Clio with his younger brother a passenger.

The Crown maintained the unemployed pair had acted together with a common criminal purpose in the offence.

Mr Ross, a greenkeeper, had been at a barbecue and out in Forfar before returning to his home town by taxi with others.

He said that when he got out an altercation had already started between the two men he was with and a group in the street in Brechin.

He said a woman struck him on the face and told the court: “I didn’t know what was going on. I had just got out of the taxi.”

Further trouble ensued and at one stage Mr Ross said he was struck by the younger Sangster brother.

After he was hit by the car he said he found himself in the road with his legs snapped.

He said: “I was struggling to come to terms with what had happened, why somebody would want to do that.”

Mr Ross said he was definitely on the pavement when he was struck by the car which approached him from behind.

He sustained ankle, knee and thigh fractures in the attack and was taken to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee and underwent surgery.

Colin Sangster’s DNA was found on the steering wheel, handbrake and a car key in the vehicle used in the attack.

The older brother was on bail but following the verdict his counsel, Jonathan Crowe, said: “In light of the seriousness of the conviction there is no motion for bail.”

Lord Beckett adjourned sentencing for the preparation of background reports until February 15 at the High Court in Glasgow with the pair remanded in custody.