The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Witness refutes claims partner kissed accused
Man and woman from Blairhall deny murdering Claire Turnbull
The partner of Fife single mum Claire Turnbull has angrily refuted suggestions she made advances towards another woman shortly before she was killed.
Charles Weir, 39, told a jury there was no truth to claims Ms Turnbull had given a “sexual kiss” to 30-year-old Laura McMurdo, one of the people accused of her murder.
He also rejected defence suggestions that Ms Turnbull, 36, had made a pass at the other accused, Aaron Donald, 28, during a drink-fuelled house party in Donald’s flat in Blairhall on the day she died.
Ms Turnbull was found dead in the living room of the property in Rintoul Avenue on October 5 last year.
Donald and McMurdo, both from Blairhall, deny murdering her and attempting to defeat the ends of justice by lying to police and hiding a hammer believed to be the murder weapon.
Donald has lodged two special defences claiming he was suffering from a mental disorder and from diminished responsibility at the time of the alleged killing.
Giving evidence on the second day of the trial at the High Court in Livingston, Mr Weir denied seeing any “intimate behaviour” between Ms Turnbull and McMurdo.
He agreed video of the two women at Dunfermline Bus Station showed them hugging and smiling at each other, but asked if Ms Turnbull had been “making sexual advances” towards McMurdo, he replied: “That didn’t happen. She never done that.”
Dr John Patrick, 43, consultant forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist at the State Hospital, Carstairs, assessed Donald after he was admitted on March 19 this year.
He said Donald had told him Ms Turnbull was “very flirtatious” with McMurdo in his flat.
Dr Patrick said Donald alleged he had been sexually assaulted by a number of people, given roll-ups containing legal highs, had a noose placed round his neck and been asked to sign a suicide letter and that this was the sort of incident that could cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
He added: “It is very unlikely he was suffering from PTSD during the incident with Claire and the use of a hammer as suggested by another expert.”
Cross-examined by QC Bert Kerrigan, Dr Patrick said Donald had pulled Ms Turnbull off his co-accused and grabbed a hammer that was sitting beside him and “hit her a few times” and that “it all happened very quickly”.
Donald told the psychiatrist that he always has a hammer with him because there had been a number of occasions when people had come to his room and assaulted him.
The trial continues.