THE cousin of the man accused of murdering a man in a supermarket car park spoke to him on the phone after he allegedly fled to Spain, a court has heard.
Jurors at the High Court in Glasgow were told yesterday (mon) that Karen O'Donnell placed William Paterson in the Costa del Sol after he left Scotland in January 2010 in a statement to police.
It followed the shooting of Kevin 'Gerbil' Carroll in a car parked outside an Asda in Robroyston, Glasgow on January 13 2010.
Detective sergeant Colin McKenzie said the claim was made in a statement..
The court also saw CCTV footage of a car around a mile away from Asda, Robroyston, where the shooting took place.
Detective constable Neil Grieve who reviewed all of the footage used in the original investigation gave evidence about the sighting of the car, and assessed it as being the same one that was seen in Asda a short time later.
The witnesses were giving evidence at the trial of Paterson, 35, who allegedly murdered Mr Carroll.
It is alleged that, acting with others, he repeatedly discharged loaded handguns at 29 year-old Carroll shooting him on the head and body.
Paterson is also accused of attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
It is alleged on January 23 2010 he boarded a flight from Glasgow to Malaga to avoid arrest.
Paterson further faces a number of firearms charges as well as another accusation of attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
The court heard that in May 2010 Paterson's cousin Karen O'Donnell told police: "I last spoke to my cousin Billy about three weeks ago when I called him up, he said he was doing fine, he is either in Marbella or Malaga."
Paterson denies the charges and has incriminated six other people.
He has lodged a special defence of alibi claiming he was at a house in Cumbernauld at the time of the shooting.
The trial before judge Lord Armstrong continues.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article