Crown asks trial to believe 'frightened' witnesses

window and murdered him.

The jurors were asked not to accept Mr McGuire's story to police that

he tried to stop two other men tossing Mr Kenneth Syme, 48, out of the

window at a Hogmanay party.

The body of Mr Syme, of Fullers Gate, Faifley, Clydebank, was found in

a wheelie-bin on New Year's Day.

His injuries included multiple fractures and internal damage. Mr Ian

Duguid, prosecuting, told the High Court in Glasgow there was ample

evidence to show Mr McGuire and his flatmate Mr Michael Fay threw Mr

Syme out the window the first time.

He said that when Fay, 29, and Raymond Henfry, 28, carried the man

back to the bedroom he was still alive.

Mr Duguid said the jury should accept evidence that McGuire shouted:

''What the f... is that bastard doing back here,'' before throwing Mr

Syme back out of the same window.

Mr McGuire denies repeatedly throwing Mr Syme out of the fourth-floor

window of his flat at Watchmeal Crescent, Faifley, Clydebank, on January

1 last and murdering him, and assaulting another man in the house that

night.

Yesterday, the Crown withdrew charges that he tied the body up and hid

it in a wheelie-bin, and threatened to throw another man from the window

on a previous occasion.

Mr McGuire has lodged a special defence of incrimination, blaming Fay

and Henfry who have had their pleas of not guilty to murder accepted by

the Crown.

Fay pled guilty to throwing Mr Syme out of the window once and

attempting to murder him, and Henfry has admitted moving Mr Syme in the

wheelie-bin with intent to defeat the ends of justice.

They will both be sentenced at the end of the trial.

Mr Duguid said that, despite being ''scared'', three men, Henfry, Mr

Douglas Gordon, 33, and Mr Robert Docherty, 42, had all spoken up to

what Mr McGuire did that night.

Henfry said he tried to pull Mr Syme back by the legs as Fay and Mr

McGuire threw him out the first time.

He also said he was in the room when Mr McGuire grabbed the man and

''papped'' him out a second time.

Mr Gordon said he had seen Mr McGuire putting the man out of the

window.

Mr Duguid also asked the jury to discount defence suggestions that Mr

Syme was already dead when he was thrown out the second time.

Mr Donald Findlay, QC, defending, accused the Crown of trying to

''bully'' the jury into convicting Mr McGuire.

He said that because Henfry and Fay had their not guilty pleas to the

murder charge accepted did not mean the jury had to convict Mr McGuire.

Mr Findlay said Henfry and Fay had lied to protect themselves and that

Mr Gordon had also lied in his evidence.

The counsel asked the jury how they could accept the word of Henfry

who claimed he was concerned about Mr Syme but had not even bothered to

call for the police or an ambulance after the man was thrown out again

and said nothing until the police came to see him later that day.

Instead, he said, Henfry had continued drinking before going on to

another party.

Mr Findlay said he was not defending the actions of Mr McGuire in not

getting help for Mr Syme. It was ''despicable, contemptible, and

callous''.

However, that was not an act of murder.

The jury would have to accept the words of liars before they could

convict Mr McGuire.

The judge Lord Osborne will address the jury today.