A man has been cleared of throwing a woman out of a second floor window in Aberdeen.
Sean Paxton, 53, stood trial accused of forcing 37-year-old Irene Bloomer out of the window of his tenement flat on Stafford Street, which caused her to plummet two floors to the pavement below.
Ms Bloomer, now deceased, suffered horrific injuries and was left wheelchair-bound following the incident, Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard.
After an hour and a half, a jury of eight women and seven men returned a unanimous verdict of not proven.
Neighbour heard ‘loud thud’
Jurors had heard evidence from one neighbour of Mr Paxton’s, Ryan O’Hara, who recalled hearing “a loud thud” during the early hours of December 14 2019.
Mr O’Hara dashed outside to find Ms Bloomer sprawled on the pavement outside the block of flats.
“I saw a girl just lying there on the pavement and saw the injury to her leg and her foot – it was shocking to see,” he said.
“Her whole foot was facing the other way.”
As he waited for an ambulance to arrive, Mr O’Hara said he asked Ms Bloomer what had happened and she said she had “been pushed”.
Mr O’Hara said that he looked up and saw Mr Paxton standing at the open window two floors up.
However, as Mr Paxton gave evidence, he claimed that he and Ms Bloomer had been locked inside his flat after two days of consuming drugs and that she had chosen to climb out of the window of her own free will.
“The lock wouldn’t operate and I said I needed to contact the council, ” Mr Paxton said.
“Irene wasn’t prepared to wait and went out the window.”
Mr Paxton told the jury that he saw Ms Bloomer standing on the windowsill of the open window and thought she had attempted to turn around and lower herself out of the flat.
“She might’ve lost her grip, I’m not sure,” Mr Paxton said.
Asked how he felt upon seeing Ms Bloomer – who died due to an unrelated matter in 2021 – lying on the ground having fallen from the second storey, Mr Paxton said he was “gobsmacked”.
‘There was no crime’
During closing speeches to the jury, fiscal depute Rebecca Thompson described Mr Paxton’s claim that Ms Bloomer jumped from the window of her own accord as “improbable”.
However, his defence solicitor Iain McGregor made the point that, due to Ms Bloomer’s untimely death, Ms Thompson was relying on evidence from “one source and one source only”.
“The Crown hangs their hat on the statement from Ms Bloomer to convince you that Sean Paxton is guilty of this very serious offence.
“My position is that there was no crime.”
Following the verdict, Sheriff Ian Wallace informed Mr Paxton, of Craigievar Place, Aberdeen, that he had been acquitted and was free to go.
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