A woman who claimed she was attacked in an attempt to rob her of £30 was accused by her assailant of reneging on a heroin deal.
The contradicting stories were told at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday in the first day of 31-year-old James Wynn’s trial.
He denies assaulting and attempting to rob 47-year-old Roslyn Simpson in her home in Brown Square, Dingwall, on June 24 this year by seizing her by the neck, forcing her down on her bed, struggling with her and demanding money while attempting to prise £30 from her hand to her injury.
Ms Simpson said she was lying in bed nursing a broken collar bone when Wynn came in to her bedroom with his partner, Kerry George or Ross.
“I had £30 on my bedroom cabinet. There was something in his eyes which told me he was going to rob me. He grabbed me by the throat, pushed me on the bed with his full body weight as I held the money.
“I was terrified for my life. He put pressure on my broken collar bone and I was in extreme pain. Then he tried to get the money out of my hand.
“I said I would call the police and he said he would tell them he had come to buy drugs.” Ms Simpson told fiscal depute Karen Smith.
But when Wynn took the stand, he accused Ms Simpson of being a drug dealer.
He told his defence lawyer Richard Souter: “I was a heroin addict at the time and I went to see her to buy heroin.
“I chucked £30 on the cabinet and said I wanted half a gram. She said I owed her money from previous times and I was not getting it. I didn’t think I owed her anything.
“I tried to prise my money out of her hand. I knew she had a broken collar bone because she did it a few days earlier climbing into her loft where she kept the heroin. She said this to police because she was not going to admit she was a drug dealer.”
The trial, which should end today, continues.
