A woman has told a court of how she felt ‘haunted’ after hearing a murder accused make a ‘smug’ remark about the alleged crime during a flight.
Margaret Haughian, 50, said she sat beside Dawn Smith, 28, during a journey between Sumburgh in Shetland and Aberdeen Airport last August.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard Ms Haughian say on Wednesday how she was working as a prison escort officer for a firm called GEOAmey.
She told jurors how as part of her duties she helped transfer Ms Smith and Ross MacDougall, 32, to the mainland on August 1.
Both Ms Smith and Mr McDougall were accused of murdering a woman called Tracey Walker and were going to be held in HMP Grampian.
Ms Haughian told jurors: “She said ‘we are going to spend the next 10 to 15 years together for something I’ve done.’”
She also told Mr Borthwick: “It haunted me afterwards. It went round and round my head.”
Ms Haughian, of Sandwick, Shetland, was giving evidence on the sixth day of proceedings against Ms Smith and Mr McDougall.
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The pair deny murdering Ms Walker at Ladies Drive, Lerwick on July 30 last year. They are also standing trial on four other charges.
On Wednesday, Ms Haughian said she was handcuffed to Dawn Smith and they were sitting in the very back row of the plane.
When Mr Borthwick asked her about the statement which was allegedly made by Ms Smith, Ms Haughian replied: “It was smug.”
In Ms Haughlan’s statement, police recorded the remark allegedly made by Ms Smith as ‘We are going to spend at least between 10 to 15 years for something I have done.”
Ms Haughian told the court that she believed the remark made in the police statement was more accurate reflection of what Ms Smith said than what jurors had been told earlier.
Ms Smith’s advocate Paul Nelson said that Ms Haughian had misheard what Ms Smith had said.
He said that at the end of the remark which jurors had been told about, Ms Smith had actually used the phrase ‘I have not done’.
Mr Nelson then asked Ms Haughian: “Are you mistaken?”
Ms Haughian replied: “No.”
Prosecutors claim that on July 30 2019 at Ladies Drive, Ms Smith had “without reasonable excuse or lawful authority” a knife. It is stated that this was “contrary to the Criminal Law (Consolidation) Scotland Act 1995.”
The second charges alleges that on the same date at the same location, Mr MacDougall and Ms Smith assaulted Ms Walker and inflicted “blunt force trauma to her head by means unknown.”
It’s also alleged that the two accused compressed her neck with their hands and that they struck her repeatedly on the neck and hand with “a knife or similar instrument.”
Prosecutors claim that the two accused attempted to rob her of money and that they “did murder her.”
Both Mr MacDougall and Ms Smith, have entered not guilty pleas to all charges on the indictment.
The trial before judge Lord Uist continues.
