Lynda Spence trial: Crown witness accused of lying

Paul Smith was previously charged, along with Colin Coats, 42, Philip Wade, 42, and David Parker, 38, with the murder of financial adviser Lynda Spence .

Parker and Smith had their pleas of not guilty accepted last week when they admitted assaulting her and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

Wade and Coats are still on trial at the High Court in Glasgow, where they deny abducting, torturing and murdering Ms Spence, 27, who disappeared in April 2011.

Smith, 47, has given evidence for the Crown, in which he told jurors Coats and Wade took Ms Spence to Parker’s flat on 14 April 2011, under the pretence that it was to be used as a safe house for her as she owed money to people who wanted to hurt her.

He said that she was held in the attic of the property, in Meadowfoot Road, West Kilbride, Ayrshire, for 13 days, where she was bound to a chair and tortured by the two men.

Under cross-examination, Derek Ogg QC, defending Coats, said: “Your story about torture, about Lynda Spence being harmed and so on, is wrong.

“It is made up for a reason to gain you an advantage – just so we are not under any illusions, that is what I’m suggesting.”

Mr Ogg asked Smith about pressure sores on Ms Spence’s body, the smell of faeces and “clouds of flies” that the lawyer said would have occurred if Ms Spence had been strapped to the same chair, in the same position, for almost two weeks.

Smith said these were not things he had noticed, as he had only smelled urine and only heard Ms Spence complain about pain from her injuries caused by the two accused men.

Mr Ogg said Smith’s “version of events” only contained information which could be used as evidence in the trial and had no unique details that might make it “ring true” with the jury.

“That’s the thing about liars, they think of the bits they have got to tell and they forget there would be detail in the truth,” he said.

The trial continues.