Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

North-east teenager fails in bid to get attempted murder conviction quashed

Brandon Douglas
Brandon Douglas

A teenager serving time for participating in a brutal attempted murder bid has failed in a bid to have his conviction quashed.

Brandon Douglas,18, is serving 10 years and three months for taking part in an assault on a man at his home in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, in November 2018.

The Court of Criminal Appeal heard last month how judge Lord Mulholland made an error during proceedings at the High Court in Aberdeen last year.

Advocate Iain Smith told judges Lord Brodie, Lord Malcolm and Lord Turnbull that his client’s legal team made a no case to answer submission during submissions.

The court heard how Douglas’s lawyers told Lord Mulholland that there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him for taking part in the attack.

Lord Mulholland disagreed and allowed the case against Douglas to proceed.

Mr Smith told the appeal court that Lord Mulholland acted incorrectly.

In a written judgement issued on Wednesday, the appeal judges dismissed the submissions made by Mr Smith. Lord Brodie wrote that Lord Mulholland followed correct legal guidelines.

He wrote: “The trial judge did not err in rejecting the submission of no case to answer.

There has been no miscarriage of justice.”

During proceedings last year, a jury heard how Douglas teamed up with Martin Gemmell, 28, and Brandon Wilson to break into the man’s home.

The trio launched an assault on their victim which left him “severely injured and permanently disfigured” before stealing a games console and two mobile phones.

The man now walks with crutches and needs a hip replacement.

He told officers he was chased through his house by the masked attackers, who broke down the bathroom door with an axe when he tried to hide.

Wilson and Gemmell also broke into another man’s home in Boddam on the same day and attacked him with knives.

Prosecutor Alan Cameron told the court how the trio “did not care” if their victim “lived or died”.

In his closing speech to jurors, Mr Cameron said: “They could have easily killed him and were wickedly reckless.”

Wilson was jailed for seven years while Gemmell was given a 10-year sentence.

Douglas – who has previous convictions for assault to injury using a stun gun and metal bar – was locked up for 10 years and three months.

Mr Smith addressed the judges during a virtual hearing of the court last month.

Talking about Lord Mulholland’s supposed failure, Mr Smith added: “His Lordship should have upheld the no case to answer submission.”

Prosecution lawyer Richard Goddard QC told the judges that Douglas hadn’t fallen victim to a miscarriage of justice.

He added: “There was sufficient evidence available to entitle the jury to convict the appellant and to conclude that he was one of the three men who broke into the house and participated in the attack.”

Lord Brodie added: “The appeal is accordingly refused.”

 

This article originally appeared on the Evening Express website. For more information, read about our new combined website.