A MAN was "bullied" into making a confession that Elaine Doyle had been strangled to death, the High Court in Edinburgh heard.
Colin McIntyre, 44, described how he was terrified by threats of violence from officers who did not believe he was at home with his family watching television on the night the teenager died. Recalling the events of more than 27 years ago he claimed he was "bullied" into making a confession. But defence QC Donald Findlay said the statement shown to the court was just a sick joke by an attention-seeking teenager. Ms Doyle was found naked and strangled just yards from her Greenock home early on June 2 1986. She had not returned from a disco at the Celtic Club in the town's Laird Street. At the time Mr McIntyre, then 16, had a part-time job in the Shamrock Club - another Celtic supporters' club in Greenock. Police visited him there five days after Ms Doyle's body was found and he told where he had been the previous Sunday.
On trial is John Docherty, 49, now of Hunters' Quay, Holiday Village, Dunoon. He denies murder and claims that at the time he is alleged to have stripped and strangled Ms Doyle, 16, he was with his parents, who are no longer alive, at their home in Anne Street. Mr Docherty has also lodged a so-called special defence of incrimination claimed the culprit might be among a list of 41 names taken from files of the police investigation into the murder. One of the names is Colin McIntyre.
The trial continues.
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