Murder trial halted after judge discovers wife is related to man who was killed

A MURDER trial has been halted for a second time after a judge realised his wife was distantly related to the man who died.

Ross Tait, 22, and Ryan Cameron, 25, are now due to return to the High Court in Edinburgh in October to stand trial for the murder of David McCardle with a new judge and new jury in place.

During a week of evidence the trial heard how David McCardle, 40 – known by the nickname Yivil – was found dying behind the then Clubhouse Public Bar in Musselburgh, East Lothian, in August last year.

It is alleged Tait and Cameron, both of Musselburgh, attacked him with a hammer, beer keg and a brush handle.

Yesterday, judge Sean Murphy QC said that he could not go on after it emerged that his wife’s aunt was the sister of Mr McCardle’s grandmother.

Although the judge has never met Mr McCardle, he told jurors: “I appreciate justice must not only be done, but must be seen to be done.

“I now realise something of which I was previously unaware. My wife is related to the family of the deceased in the case.”

Mr Murphy said he had known his wife had a number of relatives in the Musselburgh area. Because of that he had carefully checked the list of Crown witnesses but had not recognised any of the 
surnames.

He told jurors: “I very much regret circumstances came about in this way.”

Witnesses had found it 
distressing to give evidence and jurors had given up their time, said the judge.

A trial in April at the High Court in Glasgow encountered similar difficulties when judge Lady Dorrian told a jury then that she realised she knew one of the witnesses.

Last week, the trial in Edinburgh heard former pub licencee Richard Ross, 57, tell how Mr McCardle looked as though he could have been hit by a lorry.

He told how he found barman, Steven Lindsay, 29, bleeding and half conscious and duty manager Linda Watters, 44, in tears.

A pub regular, former civil servant Derek Robertson, 48, was also injured.

“Mr McCardle was in a terrible state. He could have been hit by a lorry for all I knew,” Mr Ross told the High Court.

Tait and Cameron deny charges of murder and serious assault on August 12 last year at the pub in Musselburgh’s North High Street, which is now called The Anchor.

The two claim they were acting in self defence and to protect each other. They are accused of punching Mr McCardle of South Street, Musselburgh, repeatedly throwing a metal barrel at him, struggling with him and repeatedly striking him with a hammer, the barrel and a brush while holding him on the ground.

They are also accused of assaulting Mr Lindsay with a hammer to the danger of his life, assaulting Calum Wight, 38, to his injury and assaulting Mr Robertson to the danger of his life by hitting him with the barrel and a hammer.