Murder trial told of pair’s Hitman text

A MURDER trial heard yesterday how flatmates joked about completing an ultraviolent X-Box game shortly after torturing a man and dumping his lifeless body at a football stadium.

Drew Paterson and Taylor Gordon bragged about finishing the Hitman game during a text chat at the same time as the frozen and lifeless body of William Reid was being found.

Café worker Andrew Eddington, 17, told the High Court in Perth that he had a text chat with the duo as he arranged to buy cannabis from them at their Perth flat.

He said he asked them how many drugs they had and they replied “loads”. He told the jury that the duo were constantly playing the X-Box in their flat.

In a text as he made his way to their flat, he asked: “On the bus now man, how far did you get on Hitman?” He got the reply: “It’s complete man. Lol (laugh out loud)”.

Mr Eddington said he bought cannabis at their Inchaffray Street flat and added that the only abnormal thing he noticed in the flat was that it was the first time he had ever seen the duo not playing their X-Box.

Ambulance technician Stuart Kippen, 52, said he was called to Jeanfield Swifts football stadium in Perth shortly before 5am and discovered Mr Reid, whose clothes were frozen, badly injured.

“His face was quite badly injured and he was in cardiac arrest. There was no cardiac output at all and he wasn’t breathing on his own,” said Mr Kippen. “It was a really cold night.” Taylor Gordon, 19, and Drew Paterson, 25, both from Perth, deny murdering William Reid, 27, in the city on December 7 and 8 last year.

Gordon and Paterson are alleged to have attacked Mr Reid by punching and kicking him on the head and body and dragging him through a flat at 4 Inchaffray Street.

They deny placing him in a bath, repeatedly stamping on his head and body, repeatedly striking him with a golf club, vacuum cleaner and a television.

It is alleged that they refused to phone an ambulance and drove Mr Reid to a secluded area at Bute Drive multi-pitches and dumped him in freezing temperatures.

Gordon and Paterson were both allegedly on bail at the time.

They also deny taking steps to cover up the crime by cleaning the flat and putting bloodstained clothing and a passport in bags to dispose of them.

They deny washing and removing a carpet from the flat and Paterson denies threatening people he had told about the crime.

He also denies calling 999 with a disguised voice and false name to avoid being linked with the crime. Paterson denies a third charge of supplying cannabis at the flat, and at KFC, between July 1 and December 8 last year. He denies a fourth charge of supplying diazepam in Perth between December 6 and 8. He also denies supplying the drug Mcat on December 7.

The trial continues.