A stab victim who was attacked at an Aberdeen cemetery was seen “clutching his stomach” with hands covered in blood, a court has heard.
The alleged victim, Kenneth Riddell, shouted to onlookers that he had been stabbed before he was taken to hospital.
John Ellis is charged with trying to murder Mr Riddell at Nellfield Cemetery in Great Western Road on June 10 last year.
The 29-year-old is alleged to have stabbed him on the body with a knife, scarring him for life and putting his life in danger.
Ellis is also accused of stealing controlled drugs from Union Glen, Aberdeen, also on June 10.
Later the same day, Ellis washed the clothes he wore during the alleged murder attempt in an effort to destroy evidence and defeat the ends of justice, the charges against him state.
He is also accused of failing to turn up to a hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh on March 24.
Ellis, listed in court papers as a prisoner at Edinburgh, denies all the charges against him.
Street sweeper Edwin Grant, 58, told the jury of nine women and six men at the High Court in Aberdeen yesterday that he had been in the graveyard, where he eats his lunch every day.
He saw a man in a “round woolly hat” walking around and told him to get away from the private areas of the cemetery.
Shortly afterwards he saw another young man – whom he identified as Mr Riddell – get out of a car and walk into the site. Minutes later he saw Mr Riddell coming back towards him, shouting at someone he had left in the car.
“He was clutching his stomach,” said Mr Grant. “There was some blood on his hands. He shouted to the driver ‘Get me to hospital as fast as you can’.”
Giving a statement to police shortly after the incident, Mr Grant told officers he thought the arrival of the two men at the cemetery had been “suspicious” and that he suspected one of the men was “dropping off drugs or something”.
A third man, who had stopped to ask Mr Grant where he could buy cigarettes, asked “what is the world coming to?” when he saw Mr Riddell appear with stab wounds.
The trial continues.