Trial told of £20k plot to cut off new wife’s finger

APeterhead woman has gone on trial accused of masterminding a plot to have the wedding ring finger of her exhusband’s new wife chopped off.

It is claimed Deborah Donald, also known as Leiper, hatched a plan to have local drug addicts break into the woman’s home, cut off her finger and steal her wedding ring.

Donald, who is facing a charge of conspiracy, is accused of offering to pay the addicts £20,000 to carry out the scheme.

The 44-year-old is also facing an additional allegation that, upon the plot being reported to the police, she attempted to get a witness to retract their statement.

Donald, of Laburnam Grove, Peterhead, has denied all the charges against her at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.

Giving evidence, Laura Forbes, a self-confessed “crackhead” at the time, told the court that Donald invited her to her sister’s home to “talk about a job” and where she drew out a plan of the four-bedroom house in St Fergus, Aberdeenshire.

She claimed Donald asked her and her former partner, Pavel Bogucki, to break in, steal a number of watches, assault the woman, chop her finger off and steal her wedding ring.

“She wanted her finger off, cutting off. And I could keep the rings,” Forbes added.

“This was the woman who had stolen Debbie’s husband and her house off her and was living the life she had,” she explained.

“She wanted her done in. She wanted her beaten up. She wanted her finger.”

Forbes also claimed that Donald showed her the rings, which she estimated at being worth £50,000, on the woman’s Facebook page before drawing a map of the house on paper.

It was alleged this was in order to show the location of a panic button about which Forbes claimed they were told by Donald: “Do not let her get to that”.

However, Forbes told fiscal depute Darren Harty that she had no intention of carrying out the scheme.

The witness said she had only agreed so that Donald would continue to shell out money to feed her drug addiction.

“I came off the crack and told I was never ever going to do that job. No one was going to do that job.

“I might have been crazy but I wasn’t that crazy,” she said.

During crossexamination, defence solicitor Colin Neilson quizzed Forbes on her criminal past.

He pointed out her previous convictions for theft, handling stolen goods, assault and threatening or abusive behaviour.

“You’re the type of person who would lie in a courtroom, aren’t you?” he asked.

Forbes replied: “I wouldn’t waste my time coming into court and lying about this.”

Mr Neilson then put it to Forbes that it was she who in fact masterminded the plot to fleece Donald for money.

Tutting at him, Forbes responded: “That job was never getting done. I was never cutting that woman’s finger off – but we did talk about it”.

Just minutes later, as Forbes’ former partner Pavel Bogucki took the witness stand, he claimed she had fabricated Donald’s involvement and admitted lying in his police statement at the time.

Then he was asked by Mr Harty if he had lied to the police.

“I said what she (Forbes) wanted me to say. I was completely brainwashed by her. Now I’m telling the truth and only the truth – it has gone on too far,” Mr Bogucki told the court.

The case, before Sheriff Ian Wallace, continues.