Three men have appeared in court and denied they murdered a young dad at the entrance to an Aberdeen shopping centre.
Kiel Hauley, 33, Jonas Marcius, 22, and Adrian Morley, 33, are accused of murdering Craig Grant between August 8-9, 2013, in the city’s Bon Accord Street.
Prosecutors allege the trio assaulted Mr Grant, of St Andrews Terrace, Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, at the entrance to Aberdeen’s Galleria Shopping Centre.
The Crown claims they seized him by the neck, forced him to the ground, struck him on the head and body, placed him in a neck hold or choke hold and compressed his neck.
Prosecutors also claim they knelt on his back and compressed his chest before seizing him by the legs and holding him down on the ground.
It is also alleged that they restricted his breathing and that they asphyxiated him.
At the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, Judge Lord Boyd continued the case to trial.
It will next call at the High Court in Aberdeen on December 2.
Police and ambulance crews were called to the Galleria shopping centre shortly before midnight on Thursday, August 8, 2013.
At the time of his death, oil worker Mr Grant, 26, had only recently moved to Monymusk with his wife, Fiona, and seven-year-old son, Owen.
The former Alehousewells Primary and Kemnay Academy pupil was a keen sportsman, golfer and a regular supporter of the Kemnay Youth amateur football team.
In a statement, his family said: “Craig always had time for his friends and would have done anything to help them. We know they will miss him greatly.
“He will be sorely missed and his loss will leave a hole in the lives of everyone who knew him.
“Craig was a devoted family man who was at his happiest when spending time with his son, Owen, and wife, Fiona.”
Mr Grant worked as a tool specialist for M-I Swaco for seven years. A spokesman for the firm said he was “well respected, both professionally and personally, by his colleagues,” and that he would be “greatly missed”.