A young boy who was found in a pool of blood with severe facial injuries looked like he had been “blown up” his dad has told a jury.
Paul Jessiman is on trial accused of mowing down an eight-year-old boy playing on his bicycle by driving a moped dangerously in the Cornhill area of Aberdeen on September 3, 2017.
Jessiman, of Gladstone Place, Aberdeen, denies the charge and insists he found the boy injured and tried to help him.
The 20-year-old is also alleged to have failed to report the crash to police.
Jessiman was also accused of driving the moped without a licence or insurance, but this is no longer disputed by his defence.
Yesterday the now 10-year-old cyclist, who cannot be named for legal reasons, gave evidence via video link at the High Court in Aberdeen.
Under examination by fiscal depute Katy Begg, he told the jury that he remembered cycling down a path and hearing what sounded like motorbikes approaching. He said his memory went blank after that and when he came to, his mother was screaming “are you OK?”
The boy told the jury that he drifted in and out of consciousness and remembered being in the ambulance with his dad.
His dad told the jury he heard a noise nearby and had a “sixth sense” it involved his son.
When he went to investigate, he saw his son slumped in the lap of Jessiman, who he did not know at the time.
He then heard “desperate” shouts as he raced outside to help, finding his son with blood “bubbling” out his mouth.
“It was like something from a war film, he looked like he had been blown up, he was in bits,” he told the jury.
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“His lip was hanging off, his teeth had been ripped out the top of his mouth. It was horrific – I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”
The boy’s dad also claimed he had got into an argument with Jessiman because he repeatedly refused to call an ambulance with his phone.
The jury heard the boy had “multiple” facial injuries and permanently lost two teeth.
He required 28 stitches, including inside his mouth, and surgeons were only able to give him a local anaesthetic throughout his treatment because he had been knocked out.
Constable James Whittall also gave evidence as one of two police officers that initially responded to the incident, which happened at about 4.30pm.
He told the jury that by the time they got there the boy was already in the back of an ambulance and there as blood spattered on the ground.
The trial, before Sheriff Morag McLaughlin, continues.
