The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Drink-driver guilty over injuries to ex-girlfriend
Abarman has been found guilty of causing serious injury to his ex-girlfriend in a highspeed Aberdeen city centre car crash.
George “Brian” Alden was on trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court accused of endangering the life of Chantelle Eisma-Clinch by driving his red Citroen C4 dangerously while being pursued by police cars.
Alden, 36, accelerated to more than double the speed limit before mounting a pavement and colliding with railings on Crown Street in the city centre of Aberdeen on October 11 last year.
The car then flipped over and ended up on its roof in the middle of the street.
As a result of the crash, Ms Eisma-Clinch spent around two weeks in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
A jury of eight men and six women took just over an hour to find Alden guilty of the alternative charge of causing serious injury to Ms Eisma-Clinch by driving dangerously while under the influence of alcohol.
They did not find him guilty of endangering her life.
He was also found guilty of assaulting her on the night of the crash by seizing her around the neck, pushing her against railings and shoving her to the ground.
Alden, a father-of-four, had already admitted charges of failing to stop on being requested to by police and two charges of using pneumatic tyres that were in breach of the Road Traffic Act.
He also pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified at the time of the crash.
Sheriff Ian Wallace informed Alden, who is originally from Balloch in West Dunbartonshire, that he had been “convicted by the jury of a serious offence”.
He remanded him in custody and disqualified him from driving until his sentence date.
During a four-day trial, jurors heard details about a toxic relationship between Alden and Ms Eisma-Clinch that culminated in them meeting up at Exodus nightclub at around 1am on October 11 last year.
An argument ensued, with Alden storming out of the club followed by Ms Eisma-Clinch.
She told the court that Alden told her he was going to drive home and, knowing he was drunk, she wanted to stop him so she followed him along Belmont Street and on to Union Street.
As the pair entered the darkness of Diamond Street, Alden lunged at Ms Eisma-Clinch and grabbed her violently around the throat, pushing her into a bin.
He then grabbed her by the hair before clamping his hands around her throat once more. Alden told police he shouted at her: “You can tell my kids why their dad killed himself.”
They then entered Golden Square where CCTV shows Alden grabbing Ms Eisma-Clinch by the hair and throat, pushing her against railings and forcing her to the ground.
As the pair get into the car and pull away, three police vehicles arrive and Alden takes off at high speed, racing across Union Street through a red light.
The red Citroen is followed along Crown Street by police at speed before it ploughs into concrete steps and strikes railings before striking a wall and turning on to its roof.
Following the crash, Alden was found to have 72 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood in his system. The legal limit is 50mg.
Giving evidence, Ms Eisma-Clinch told the jury she assumed she was going to die, claiming Alden told her: “My suicide note is ready and you’re coming with me.”
As he was cross-examined by fiscal depute Alan Townsend, Alden conceded on a number of occasions that he “could be an a ****** ” and an “aggressive person” but maintained that he was “fundamentally a good person”.
During speeches to the jury, Mr Townsend described Alden as a man wracked with “jealousy, insecurities and self-loathing”.
He told the jury they had seen the crash for themselves in “graphic technicolour” during the trial and urged them to convict Alden.
Alden’s defence solicitor, Graham Robertson KC, pointed jurors to the crash investigation report, which concluded that Alden was “solely responsible” for the collision.
However, it also found that the crash was caused by “a steering overcorrection” which “led to the vehicle oversteering, resulting in a full loss of control”.
Mr Robertson reiterated that all three crash investigators who completed the report “concluded that the car was basically going too fast” and that that was what “caused the collision”.
Following the jury’s verdict, Sheriff Wallace deferred sentence on Alden until January 15 next year in order for a criminal justice social work report and a restriction of liberty order assessment to be carried out.