Driver cleared of hitting man and dog with van
A man accused of mowing down a pedestrian and a dog in a row over the animal’s poo has walked free from court.
Alexander McKinley was said to have run over Dean Johnstone and Rico the Rottweiler, leaving the animal so badly injured that it had to be put down.
McKinley, 56, denied carrying out a life-threatening assault on Mr Johnstone by deliberately knocking him down in his van.
At Paisley Sheriff Court this week, he was cleared after his lawyer argued he had no case to answer.
Mr Johnstone and witness Robert Duffy had said he and his dog were struck by a white van in Johnstone on September 4, 2018.
Mr Johnstone, 27, claimed he’d clashed with a drunken McKinley while walking Rico, with McKinley chasing him with a metal pole shortly before running them over.
He said he “crawled” to the pavement after being struck and phoned his brother, who collected the dog, while he walked to the local police station.
He told the court: “I was scared. I’d just been struck by a van.
“I said that me and the dog had just been knocked down, it was a hit and run, and I needed attended to, to see if my leg was okay.”
He said he was checked by medics at hospital, but did not need treatment, as he was only bruised and was given painkillers.
He added: “My brother didn’t have insurance for Rico so he’d no way to pay the full vet bills and he couldn’t afford it. His back leg was snapped. He was put down ten days after it.”
He denied claims from defence solicitor David Nicholson that, at a house party last summer, he told someone: “He never hit me, I’m making that up for the insurance.”
Mr Duffy, 66, told the court: “He hit the gentlemen and the dog and they were thrown over the bonnet of the car.
“I heard the noise of the dog hitting the grill. The dog had taken most of the impact of the crash.
“The dog was yelping. The man looked like he was in a state of shock.
“After the car had hit the dog and the gentleman, both windows were open, and he was shouting expletives out the window when he went past me.”
He said the driver, whom he identified in court as McKinley, circled around and drove back to the scene of the collision.
He explained: “The man was still lying on the ground at the time, trying to get up.
“The driver came to a skidding halt, at an angle. He said to me, ‘Do you know him? He’s bad news. He’s a junkie b******. That’ll teach him for allowing his dog to s*** in my driveway again.’
“Basically, that the dog had done a dump on his driveway, and that’s what caused him to be in such a bad frame of mind.”
He said the driver, “didn’t appear to be rational”, describing his behaviour as “bizarre” and “bamboozling” and the driving as “disgusting”.
Mr Nicholson made a no case to answer submission, arguing it had not been proved that McKinley was the driver at the time of the alleged incident.
He pointed out that Mr Johnstone had described the van as being a white Citroen Berlingo with a silver roof rack, when it was in fact a Vauxhall Combo with nothing on the roof.
And he said that, although Mr Johnstone had said he recognised McKinley’s voice when the driver had been shouting, he did not see if it was McKinley who was driving.
The lawyer also pointed out that, although Mr Duffy identified McKinley in court, he picked out a different man at an identification parade.
Sheriff Bruce Erroch said he was “not persuaded” prosecutors had “overcome the identification difficulty” and upheld the no case to answer submission - acquitting McKinley, of Johnstone, of the charge.