Accused cleared in murder trial

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A man on trial for the murder of a father on the outskirts of Aberdeen has had the charges against him dropped.

Shaun Paton, 20, Kevin Leslie, 24, Colin Cowie, 22, and Colin Stewart, 22, have been on trial for the murder of Dean Jamieson, 30, in April this year.

The High Court in Aberdeen heard that the Crown would now not be proceeding with charges against Mr Stewart.

Advocate depute Adrian Cottam said he would call Mr Stewart, who was cleared, as a witness. The trial was adjourned.

Judge Lady Paton told Mr Stewart that as a result of the charges being dropped: "I have acquitted you and you are now free to go."

Mr Stewart is now expected to give evidence on Thursday.

New development

The remaining three accused are alleged to have taken Mr Jamieson to Elrick Hill on the outskirts of Aberdeen, robbed and beaten him, forced him to remove clothing and attacked him with knives.

It is also alleged they left partially-clothed Mr Jamieson to die in the cold.

They deny the charges and Mr Leslie has lodged a special defence of self-defence.

The trial was adjourned to allow the legal teams time to respond to the new development.

Last week the court heard that Mr Cowie allegedly filmed himself jumping on Mr Jamieson's head and showed the footage on his mobile phone.

A female member of Mr Jamieson's family left the court sobbing, as a witness told how the footage resembled a movie because of the amount of blood on the victim's face.