Edinburgh man told paramedics 'I have a dead body in the van' after sex worker's overdose

Douglas Dunbar, 64, panicked when the woman he picked up became unresponsive after she had injected heroin in the vehicle that was kitted out with a double bed and a mattress.

Dunbar attempted to revive the woman by performing CPR before deciding to drive to a nearby hospital in a bid to get the drug Narcan that would reverse the effects of the killer drug. But after being held up by roadworks he was forced to approach two paramedics who were taking a break outside a McDonald’s at Cameron Toll shopping centre in Edinburgh.

Dunbar, of the capital’s Newington, told the stunned medics “You have to come in, I have a dead body in the van” during the incident in February 2024. Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told the paramedics initially believed Dunbar was “suffering from poor mental health” before they saw the woman’s body lying in the back of his van.

The medics administered CPR and used a defibrillator in a vain bid to save the woman’s life and a post mortem later revealed she had died after suffering “a multi-drug intoxication death”. The court heard Dunbar then went on to dump the woman’s mobile phone due to “messages of him offering to supply her with drugs” contained on the device.

Prosecutor Connor Muir said there was no evidence Dunbar had supplied the woman with the drugs she had overdosed on despite him paying sex workers for their services with cocaine and heroin on previous occasions. Details of the woman’s death were read out in court after Dunbar pleaded guilty to six charges including assault and supplying women with Class A drugs when he appeared at the city’s sheriff court on Tuesday, February 2.

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Mr Muir told the court Dunbar had installed a double bed, mattress, duvet and pillows as well as a medical cabinet in the white Transit van and used the vehicle for sexual encounters with women. Dunbar picked one woman up and supplied her with a cocktail drink after adding a quantity of the sedative drug Chloral Hydrate that she accepted around Christmas 2023.

The court heard the drug has side effects including confusion, sedation, delirium, headaches and kidney disease and the effects of alcohol are enhanced when the drug is added. He met the woman for a second time the following month where he supplied her with cocaine before going on to assault her after finding out she had been on a date the previous night.

Mr Muir said: “The accused jumped onto her and as she was on her back he grabbed her throat and choked her. She couldn’t breathe and felt like she was going to pass out. [The woman] believed he was going to kill her.”

Dunbar, a former director of a portrait photography business, also badly injured the woman by twisting her arm behind her back and during the assault.

The court heard Dunbar picked up sex workers and supplied them with drugs and engaged in sexual activity in the back of his van at locations including Cramond and Fisherrow Harbour in Musselburgh, East Lothian.

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Mr Muir said: “[One woman] worked as a sex worker and advertised her services online. Around June 2021 the accused messaged her and set up a meeting. When they met he stated he could get her drugs and that he worked for the NHS and used to be a paramedic in Africa.

“At the start he would attend [the woman’s] property and pay in cash. On one occasion the accused offered to pick her up in his van. She noted it to have a double bed in the back and medical cabinets which had supplies in it. When they started using his van, it swapped from cash payment to the accused paying with drugs.”

Sheriff Julius Komorowski continued Dunbar’s bail with the condition he stay within his home between 7pm and 7am and does not drive any vehicle. Sentence was deferred to next month for the preparation of reports.

Dunbar pleaded guilty to supplying cocaine to a woman and culpably and recklessly supplying her with Chloral Hydrate at Fisherrow Harbour, Musselburgh, East Lothian, in December 2023 and January 2024. He also admitted assaulting the woman at the same location between the same dates.

He pleaded guilty to supplying cocaine and diamorphine to women on various occasions between June 2021 and February 2024. Dunbar also pleaded guilty to disposing of a mobile phone belonging to a woman, now deceased, during a journey between Telferton and at Cameron Toll, Edinburgh, and and did intend to defeat the ends of justice on February 25, 2024.