A teenage footballer was punched in the face in a case of “mistaken identity,” a court has heard.
Aberdeen FC forward David Dangana told Aberdeen Sheriff Court he was in a car outside his home in the city when he was assaulted.
Shaun Stewart, 33, and Lana Smart, 30, are accused of attacking and attempting to rob him on August 9 last year, when Mr Dangana was aged 18. Both deny the charges.
During their trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court yesterday, Mr Dangana said Smart had flagged-down his car before asking him ‘Where is it?’.
The court was told she was referring to drugs but Mr Dangana said: “I was confused. I didn’t know what she was talking about. She said something like ‘let me see your phone’ so I unlocked it and gave it to her.
“She was scrolling through it while I sat there and then the man punched me in the face. Then someone put a knife to my face.”
Mr Dangana told the jury he heard Smart say ‘It’s not him, it’s not him’ before handing back his phone.
The man had removed the keys from Mr Dangana’s white Vauxhall Corsa and Smart gave them back to Mr Dangana, the court heard, before she walked off, following two other men.
Smart’s solicitor, Lewis Shand, told the court his client had told Mr Dangana: “Don’t worry, nobody will hurt you,” and that when a man punched Mr Dangana, she had asked the attacker “What are you doing?”
Mr Shand asked Mr Dangana: “Do you accept this was a case of mistaken identity?”
He replied: “Yes.”
Mr Shand then asked: “Isn’t it the case there was a distinction between the behaviour that day of the lady and the two men you saw?
“Two people displayed aggression and one person did not.”
Mr Dangana said “Yes.”
The court heard Stewart’s fingerprints were found on the Corsa.
Stewart’s solicitor, Ian Houston, questioned why Mr Dangana had identified his client in court as the man who held the knife near him when he was only “50% sure” it was Stewart.
Mr Dangana replied: “I was panicking when it happened. I wasn’t looking at him. I still don’t know who the guy with the knife was.
Mr Houston told him: “Being 50% certain means it could have him but equally it might have not.”
The trial continues.
