The man accused of murdering Brenda Page has denied he is a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde character who harbours a “dark alter-ego”.
Giving evidence for the first time at the High Court in Aberdeen, Dr Christopher Harrisson told advocate depute Alex Prentice he was a “kind and considerate man” and challenged the prosecutor’s claim he had a “violent temper”.
The 82-year-old also denied that he snuck into his ex-wife’s Aberdeen flat and lay in wait before bludgeoning her to death with a blunt implement on July 12 1978.
As the Cambridge-educated former research scientist took the stand, Mr Prentice asked him: “Dr Harrisson are you familiar with the tale of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?
“Dr Jekyll, a well-respected and intelligent scientist who has a darker alter-ego and who didn’t accept responsibility for his crimes and ways – that was the tale, wasn’t it?”
“That was the tale,” Harrisson said.
“That description sums you up very well, doesn’t it? On the one hand, you can be a kind and considerate man, but on other occasions, a violent and aggressive man?” Mr Prentice asked.
“I’m a kind and considerate man,” the former biochemist replied.
“At all times?” asked Mr Prentice.
“Most people have their variations, but at all times,” Harrison replied.
Dr Brenda Page’s body was discovered in her Aberdeen flat on the morning of July 14 1978. She was repeatedly and violently struck on the head, face and body with a blunt implement.
Harrisson, 82, has denied murdering her.
Mr Prentice also showed jurors a copy of a letter to Harrisson from Dr Page in which she told him she wanted “no part” of the “dishonesty with which you surround your life”, adding: “Just get out of my life and stay out.”
Asked about the letter, Harrisson told Prentice: “You have to understand the context. It’s a storm in a teacup.”
The advocate depute also put it to Harrisson that he followed his ex-wife to the Treetops Hotel in Aberdeen, where she had been meeting men as an escort, on the night she was killed.
“You followed her in your car, didn’t you?” Mr Prentice asked.
“I never followed her on any occasion,” he replied.
Mr Prentice put it to Harrisson that he had flown into an “uncontrollable rage” over the fact that Dr Page, a genetic scientist, had started working as an escort.
“It’s absolutely not so,” he replied.
When questioned by defence advocate Brian McConnachie KC, Harrisson claimed that he and his ex-wife had maintained an “amicable” relationship following their divorce in June 1976.
Mr McConnachie asked Harrison directly: “Did you climb into the window at the rear of Brenda Page’s house, lie in wait for her, then attack and kill her?”
“I did not,” Harrisson replied.
The pensioner also told Mr McConnachie that on the day of Dr Page’s death he boarded a train at Stonehaven bound for Edinburgh at around 5am.
He claimed he had gone Edinburgh University to “return library books” after completing his PHD studies.
Harrisson said he returned to his home in Aberdeen at around 6pm where police officers were waiting outside his home to arrest him on suspicion of his ex-wife’s murder.
The trial, before judge Lord Richardson, continues.
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