Pair’s armed escort after guilty plea at High Court in Edinburgh

Published on 25/07/2012 01:06

Armed police guarded two brothers as they left court yesterday after admitting the murder of a father of two and setting his body on fire.

The trial of Paul Christie, 29, and Adam Christie, 27, had been brought to a sudden end when they changed their pleas and admitted the killing of Brian Faulds, 29.

The dramatic development at the High Court in Edinburgh followed gruesome photographs of Mr Faulds’s burned body being shown to jurors and the public gallery.

The case was adjourned overnight, and armed police were called to the High Court in Edinburgh, and St Giles’ Street at the rear of the court was closed to traffic, as the men were taken from the building to Saughton Prison. Normally, prisoners are transported by the security firm G4S, but a police van was used on this occasion.

It is believed threats had been made to the men’s safety.

Mr Faulds was attacked by the Christie brothers on 27 September last year in a flat in Dalmarnock Road, Glasgow. He was bound with tape, repeatedly punched and kicked, and repeatedly struck with a knife, a cleaver, axes, a hammer and a baseball bat.

A third brother, Bryan Christie, 22, maintained his not guilty plea to the murder, and it was
accepted by the Crown.