Court told of knife attack in close

Two females and a male went on trial yesterday accused of assaulting and robbing two men in a Hamilton close with weapons which included a knife.

Jordan Richardson (20), 19-year-old Nicole Cairns and a female teenager who cannot be named for legal reasons, denied charges of assaulting Connor Mather and Decklin Law at the flat in the Low Waters Road area on November 11, 2015.

Cairns is alleged to have carried out the attack on the men while she was on bail on another matter.

Giving evidence, witness Mr Law, who had been living in East Kilbride at the time, told Hamilton Sheriff Court he had been chatting to acquaintance Cairns on Facebook that day.

Questioned by fiscal depute Imran Bashir, he said he thought Cairns had messaged him first.

As the conversation went on, he said it was agreed that he and Mr Mather would go to the Low Waters Road area where a teenage girl would meet them and take them to a house in the area.

After travelling to Hamilton by bus, the two complainers met the teenager, the third accused, who they didn’t know, at about 9pm or 10pm.

After five minutes, Mr Law said they all reached a block of flats where they saw Cairns. Mr Law identified Cairns and the other female in the dock.

The complainers walked into the close and Cairns, after finishing a cigarette, closed the door.

Mr Law said Cairns just stood there and the teenager was further inside the close. Mr Law said he asked her if she was going to take them up to the flat.

A male then appeared wearing a surgical mask concealing his lower face with a knife in his hand and said: ‘gie us money, drink, all your stuff’, and waved the weapon in front of their faces.

He said to Mr Law, “You were getting wide on Facebook”, but the witness told the court he didn’t know what he meant.

The man cut Mr Law on his upper lip with the tip of the knife before pointing it at Mr Mather’s face.

As Mr Mather was about to hand over his phone, Mr Law took the opportunity to grab the man’s wrists and shoulder, pushing him towards the close door.

Mr Bashir asked him if he knew where his friend’s phone was. He replied that he did not.

Mr Law turned round and saw Mr Mathers crouching down with his hands above his head and three or four girls hitting him with wooden coffee table legs.

Cairns and the other female accused, he said, were among those hitting his friend but he did not know who the others were.

Noticing the back door was open, Mr Law said he let go of the man with the knife. However, the man struck him on the stomach with the weapon as he went for the back door. Asked how many times Mr Mathers had been hit by the girls, he replied: “a lot.”

He squeezed past the girls hitting Mr Mather pursued by the male, who was holding the knife at head height.

Mr Law threw a toy pram at the man and managed to open the back close door. When he got outside, his friend followed him.

The trial before Sheriff Marie Smart continues.