A north-east man accused of murdering and robbing a mechanic in his cottage was left with just £27 a month after expenses from his job as a farmer.
Brian McKandie was found dead in his Badenscoth property after being bludgeoned to death.
And Steven Sidebottom is on trial at the High Court in Aberdeen accused of murdering and robbing him of a sum of money.
Today the court has heard from Susan Sidebottom, the mother of the 25-year-old, who said he worked in the family business and Crannabog Farm in Rothienorman.
She said her son was self employed and was on retention meaning she could call on him at any time to do work and he had his expenses such as clothing and food paid for.
The 63-year-old was asked how much he got a week and said “£200”.
She went on to say he paid child maintenance for his daughter which amounted to £173 a week.
Advocate depute Iain McSporran QC asked her if that left him with £27 per month.
She replied: “£27 in that bank account.”
The court heard that Sidebottom had left the home in November 2015 and left a note saying he had taken money from a “slush fund” the family had.
Mrs Sidebottom said he had returned four days later and she had not yet seen the money.
When asked for the amount she said it was £2,000.
Mr McSporran then referred her to a police interview given in December 2016 in which she had allegedly said the amount was in fact only “several hundred pounds”.
She said: “I do not recall saying that, the statement was taken when I was cooking Christmas lunch, officers were laying the table.”
She also said on Friday, March 2016, the day McKandie is understood to have died, her son took two sets of beasts to Thainstone Market and had “supper” with the family and went out later.
She said that “99.9%” of the time he would have his meal with her and her husband.
Again Mr McSporran pointed her to a police statement, taken in February 2017, in which she said she was unsure whether he had been present for dinner.
She said: “There are things in my statement I do not recall saying” and went on to describe the process as an “interrogation” in which questions were “carefully worded” to get a specific answer.
Sidebottom, of Crannabog Farm, Rothienorman, denies the charge against him and has launched two special defences – one of alibi, claiming he was elsewhere at the time of the crime, and that another man is responsible.
The trial, before Lord Uist, continues.
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