A woman accused of the attempted murders of three car passengers allegedly told her partner she “wanted him to die” only hours before a horror crash.
Donna Stewart faces charges at the High Court in Aberdeen of driving at high speed while nearly twice the drink-drive limit before ploughing her Mercedes C220 into the side of an Inverness branch of William Hill.
It is alleged the 46-year-old’s actions caused severe injury and permanent disfigurement to passengers Stephen MacDonald, John Fraser and Hugh Lowther, her partner.
Stewart faces a total of eight charges in relation to the incidents on January 21 2021, including three charges of attempted murder.
She is also accused of two counts of threatening or abusive behaviour, one assault charge, one charge of driving dangerously and one charge of driving while under the influence of alcohol.
Stewart, of McCallum Court, Perth, denies all the charges against her.
On the opening day of the trial, jurors heard evidence from witness Sarah Marshall, who claimed she watched Stewart drink two bottles of wine and a can of Dragon Soop in the hours before the Grant Street crash.
During the gathering at Marshall’s home in Kirkhill, nine miles from Inverness, she said Stewart spoke about partner Hugh Lowther and said she “wanted him to die”.
“She had quite a drink in her and she was being loud and quite mouthy,” Ms Marshall said.
“She was loud and shouting. Her and Shug [Hugh Lowther] weren’t getting on at the time.”
‘She wanted him to die’
Asked by advocate depute John Macpherson what Stewart said that night, Ms Marshall replied that she told Mr Lowther “that she wanted him to die”.
“How many times did she say she wanted him to die?” Mr Macpherson asked.
“A couple,” Ms Marshall said.
She claimed that Stewart and Lowther then left her home and that when she looked out moments later “the car wasn’t there”.
During cross-examination by Stewart’s defence advocate Janice Green, she put it to Ms Marshall that what she heard was her client and Mr Lowther arguing about his drug taking.
“The argument that you heard was that he was killing himself with drugs, that he would be better off dead than on drugs, isn’t that right?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Ms Marshall replied.
Another woman, Kerri-Ann Goodfellow, who witnessed the crash, also gave evidence.
Ms Goodfellow stated that there a “strong smell of alcohol coming from the car” when she approached the vehicle.
She also claimed that she saw a woman in a pink jacket rummaging through the pockets of one of the injured passengers before leaving the crash site.
During cross-examination, the defence advocate quizzed Ms Goodfellow on her claim that the Mercedes was travelling at between 50 and 70mph, despite her police statement saying the car was travelling at around 50mph.
Ms Green asked Ms Goodfellow if she was now saying that her statement was “not accurately recorded “at the time of the incident.
“I can only presume I agreed with what was being read to me,” she replied.
The case, before Judge Graham Buchanan, continues.
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