A WITNESS in a murder trial has denied that he killed a woman and stabbed her 86-year-old partner.
Ross Arthurs, 28, was asked if he had murdered Isabelle Sanders at her home at Raeswood Drive, Glasgow and said: "Absolutely not."
Murder accused Paul McManus has lodged special defences of incrimination, naming Mr Arthurs and Christopher O'Reilly. Mr Arthurs was giving evidence for a second day at the High Court in Glasgow at the trial of 19-year-old Paul McManus, who denies murdering Miss Sanders, 51, and attempting to murder her partner Norman Busby on April 9.
Defence QC Gordon Jackson put it to Mr Arthurs that he, Mr O'Reilly and Mr McManus were all at Raeswood Drive on April 9.
Mr Arthurs replied: "No, he murdered that woman. As far as I'm aware Paul was in the house on his own. I don't know if Christopher O'Reilly was there."
Mr Jackson then said: "It wasn't Mr McManus that stabbed them. It was one of you two." Mr Arthurs replied: "No, I couldn't go out and do that to anybody."
Referring to a confession which Mr Arthurs claimed Mr McManus made to him, Mr Jackson said: "He told you, according to you, that he stabbed the woman first and then the man, evidence we have heard suggests that this was the wrong way round." Mr Arthurs said: "That's what I was told by Paul McManus." Mr Arthurs was accused of making up the story about the alleged confession and replied: "You don't just make up things like that."
The court heard that detectives and forensic scientists searched the crime scene for three days.
The jury was shown photographs of bloodstains in the living room. Inspector Lorna Carnochan said that she and her team of officers examined the grounds of the house. She said computer cables, a computer mouse and a phone handset with blood on it were found in the garden area. A set of car keys with a bloodstained fob was found in the Nissan Almeirain the driveway, the court heard.
The trial, before judge Lord Armstrong, continues.
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