Trip to buy car ends in Wardieburn stabbing, court told

Police at the scene of the Wardieburn assault. Picture: Lisa Ferguson

James Stewart, 46, from Aberdeen, said that he and his brother Peter were set upon as they were being led into the house in Wardieburn for a cup of tea and to meet the vehicle’s seller. He said a youth suddenly spun around and aimed a punch at the left side of his stomach.

Mr Stewart told a jury at the High Court in Livingston:  “I didn’t know if I’d come back alive. I thought I was dying. I knew I had to get my brother’s help.”

Asked why he did not phone for help, he said he could not concentrate on his phone, which was covered in blood. He said: “I didn’t know if I was going to die.

James Stewart, told a jury he thought he was going to die after being stabbed in the stomach on a car buying trip to Edinburgh. Picture: Vic Rodrick

“I didn’t know if I was going to see my kids or anyone again. I was in a strange place. I was panicking.”

He said he saw a stockily built male with short dark hair wearing a striped top running towards his brother and tussling with him, but, realising he was bleeding heavily himself, went to try to get help.

As a couple he met in a nearby street called for an ambulance for him, he turned around and saw his brother.

Mr Stewart said his brother took “about two steps towards me” and said “they’ve got me”.

“He took two more steps forward then he collapsed,” he said.

The jury heard a recording of the 999 call in which Mr Stewart is passed the phone and tells the call handler he can see that his brother has “serious bleeding”.

Jury members were also shown footage of the moment his brother collapsed beside a black car parked in a street in the Wardieburn area.

It is agreed evidence that Peter Stewart was stabbed through the heart and lung, and would have died from his injuries without medical intervention.

Under cross-examination, James Stewart admitted that he and his brother were regular cannabis users.

However, despite being offered immunity from prosecution for drugs offences by the prosecution, he rejected suggestions he and his brother had gone to Edinburgh with £6500 to buy a kilogramme of cannabis.

Ryan Ellis, 31, and a 17-year-old teenager – who cannot be named for legal reasons – have both denied seriously assaulting James Stewart and robbing and attempting to murder Peter Stewart in Wardieburn Street West on April 8 last year.

The jury heard yesterday that another witness had told police one of the accused had confessed to her that the brothers had been caught in an “ambush” to rob them of cash and a mobile phone.

However, Kayleigh Davis, 22, claimed she had no memory of reporting that she saw one man lying bleeding on the ground and another with “blood coming from his body” run past her and throw a makeshift weapon into a hedge.

The trial, before Lord Glennie, continues.