‘He was jealous if I chatted to men’

A WOMAN has told a court of how a man accused of attempting to kill her got jealous when she spoke to other men in the pub.

Lynsey Methven, 30, said she drank with boyfriend Frank Moore, 43, at the Elm Bar at the top of Leith Walk.

Miss Methven said Moore was sociable and would chat to people in bars but appeared to get jealous when she spoke to other men.

She said: “If I ever chatted to men he would not be happy about it and probably got a bit jealous even though he knew these people.”

The court also heard of an occasion when Moore climbed in her bedroom window.

She described how she “got the fright of her life” but calmed down when she realised it was her boyfriend. She said Moore had then left.

Miss Methven also described how her relationship with Moore began to cool after she found out he booked a six-week holiday to Thailand without telling her.

Frank Moore, 43, is on trial at the High Court in Edinburgh accused of murdering Stewart Taylor, 33, and attempting to murder Miss Methven on February 7 this year at Chalmers Crescent in The Grange area of Edinburgh.

Moore, of Bothwell Crescent, Edinburgh, is said to have entered uninvited before assaulting Mr Taylor. It is alleged he set fire to bedding before locking him inside.

Moore is said to have previously evinced malice and ill-will towards the pair. He is also said to have stolen a mobile phone, handbag and diary and to have attempted to defeat the ends of justice by concealing a mobile phone, disposing of a SIM card, attempting to dispose of a pair of boots by setting fire to them, washing clothing and a belt worn during the alleged offences and telephoning Miss Methven’s phone.

He has lodged a special defence of alibi.

Moore also faces allegations that he previously assaulted Mr Taylor and Miss Methven at the flat in Chalmers Crescent on December 6 last year and that he allegedly attacked Mr Taylor at Elm Bar in the Capital’s Elm Row in January this year.

He has lodged a special defence of self defence for the alleged attack on Mr Taylor at Chalmers Crescent. He is accused of repeatedly contacting Miss Methven by phone earlier this year in a way that was “grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character”.

Moore is also said to have committed a breach of peace during the same time in that he harassed Miss Methven and “watched her movements”.

Moore denies all the allegations against him.

The trial in front of Judge Lord Pentland continues.

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