A jury has been told a murder accused was “wrapped round the finger” of his ex-girlfriend when he took the blame for an Aberdeen man’s death.
Paul Balgowan is alleged to have murdered Alan Bennett, but a court was told yesterday Julie Carroll was “calculating, manipulative and deceptive” and begged the 24-year-old to confess to protect her.
Carroll admitted the culpable homicide of the 56-year-old Cove man earlier this week, and later told the trial Balgowan stabbed the insurance broker.
Balgowan, 24, denies the charge, and at the High Court in Aberdeen yesterday said it was prostitute Carroll, also 24, who stabbed Mr Bennett after luring him down Oldmill Road on May 30 last year with the promise of sex.
In his closing speech to the jury yesterday, Balgowan’s counsel, Lorenzo Alonzi QC, said Carroll had a “violent past which meant she could handle herself”.
He said: “There are really only three people who will ever know what happened in the lane that night. Sadly, one of them died.
“There are only two people living who know what happened, so it is the word of Paul Balgowan against the word of Julie Carroll.
“Is she quiet because she is quiet, or is she quiet because she is just calculating, manipulative and deceptive?
“Is she the princess wrapping him around her finger, so that when she cries and pleads with him he, in his words, took it in like soup?”
Advocate depute Iain McSporran, prosecuting, also addressed the jury yesterday, and said Balgowan’s position was “ridiculous”, and that evidence heard during the trial meant his story had “fallen like a house of cards”.
Cross-examining Balgowan earlier, Mr McSporran said his confession to the police was “a pack of lies”, and not an attempt to cover for Carroll.
He said: “You couldn’t bear the thought of anyone touching your Julie. You hated the notion of people touching her.”
Balgowan denied he was a “cold-blooded killer”, and replied: “Of course I wasn’t happy with it, but it doesn’t mean I was going to kill someone over it.”
The trial continues.