Man in court on murder charge

TRIAL: 22-year-old ‘died from stab wound to heart’

A young man died following a single stab wound to the heart, a murder trial was told yesterday.

Paramedics called to a house in Perth discovered Barry Dixon, 22, from Dundee, suffering from a chest wound and rushed him to Ninewells Hospital.

But as surgeons battled to save the former Braeview Academy pupil, pictured, he went into fatal cardiac arrest on the operating table. Robbie Smullen, 23, denies assaulting and murdering Mr Dixon at the property in Wallace Court on June 4 2019.

He is on trial at the High Court in Edinburgh along with his mother, Mary Theressa Smullen, 46. She is accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice, by claiming another person carried out the murder.

An alleged murder victim was found with a stab wound to the chest after emergency services responded to a 999 call, a court has heard.

Barry Dixon, from Dundee, was taken from a house in Perth to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, where a scan revealed he had fluid in the sac around his heart.

Blood which had gathered around the organ was removed but a single stab injury to the heart was identified, the High Court in Edinburgh was told in agreed evidence yesterday.

But during efforts by surgeons to repair the injury, Mr Dixon went into cardiac arrest and he was later pronounced dead at the age of 22.

The court heard police and paramedics had attended the property at Wallace Court, Perth, following an emergency call.

Mr Dixon, a former pupil of Braeview Academy, was found lying on a mattress with a visible chest wound.

Robbie Smullen, 23, has denied assaulting Mr Dixon by striking him on the body with a knife or similar instrument and murdering him in Wallace Court on June 4, 2019.

Smullen has also denied assaulting another man, Paul Booth, at Nimmo Avenue, also in Perth, on June 3 in 2019 by challenging him to fight, chasing him, fighting with him, threatening him and repeatedly punching him on the head.

He has lodged special defences of self-defence to both of the charges.

Smullen faces a further charge of failing to comply with a bail condition on June 3 and 4 in 2019 that he remain within 25 Wallace Court between 7pm and 7am.

His mother Mary Theressa Smullen, 46, is accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice on various occasions on June 4 in 2019 at 25 Wallace Court, 92 Craigie Place, Perth, and Perth Police Station.

It is alleged that, knowing her son had stabbed Mr Dixon, she pretended to police that the crime had been committed by Shannon Beattie.

Jordan Walker, 24, said Mr Booth visited his home in Nimmo Avenue on June 3 in 2019.

He said Mr Booth was drinking and he and Mr Booth smoked cannabis. He said Smullen, who was also a friend, arrived and had been drinking.

In a statement to police he described Smullen as “pretty intoxicated” and “wasted”.

He said when he told the police that he later found Smullen and Mr Booth fighting and that he tried to split it up he was telling the truth.

The trial before Lady Carmichael continues.