‘A pale face came out of the dark, then I felt warm blood on my neck’

A SENIOR law official has told a court of the moment he was attacked by a man wearing a balaclava as he returned home from work.

Leslie Cumming, 68, described how the man emerged from the darkness in a lane and, without a word being spoken, attacked him.

“You could see the eyes and the nose, and that was about it… just that circle of pale face coming out of the darkness,” Mr Cumming told the High Court in Edinburgh.

“I took a step forward and the individual had both hands clenched and raised. I thought it was an odd posture, some kind of boxing stance or whatever.”

The man reached towards him and Mr Cumming tried to knock his hand away and made a grab for the balaclava to try to unmask the assailant. He was struck on the side of the face. He thought it was a punch.

“I realised that… blood was running down my neck. I could feel the warm blood. At that point I understood this was not an assault with fists but there was a blade or blades involved… this was a very serious matter, dangerous and life-threatening, and goodness only knows how it would turn out.

“I thought the safest thing to do was lunge at the person and seek to restrain their arms, so they could not slash me with this knife or knives. We were in quite close contact. I found myself losing balance and I fell over.

“I was very anxious to get up again and I thrust myself back up. As I did that, there was a pounding on my back, a tattoo of blows. It seemed to be two hands pounding my back.”

Mr Cumming said he made another lunge and held the man, who broke his grip and walked away briskly, without running.

“I was having trouble seeing because of blood running into my eyes. I decided I really needed to lean on the wall and just gather myself. All the adrenaline just drained away.

“I have to say I had no interest in chasing after him. I recall thinking, ‘What was that about? What caused that to happen?’ I had no answer to that,” he said.

“No demands were made, just silent walking towards me. I think the fact the individual walked straight up and struck me and nothing was said at all seemed odd,” Mr Cumming said.

“I was left completely confused as to what had happened and why it happened.”

Mr Cumming, the former deputy chief executive of the Law Society of Scotland, was giving evidence at the trial of Robert Graham, 46, who denies attempting to murder him on 23 January, 2006. In a special defence, Graham stated that the offence was not committed by him but by a third party, whose name he did not know.

Mr Cumming said he had headed a team of inspectors who made regular checks on the books of law firms to ensure compliance with accounts rules, for example that clients’ money must be kept in a separate bank account. He would be the person to bring any matters to the attention of the Crown Office or the Scottish Solicitors’ Discipline Tribunal.

He recalled arriving home about 5pm and driving up a lane to his garage at the back of his house in Murrayfield. The lane had no lights. Once he put his car in the garage and turned off the engine and the headlights, it was totally dark. He was about to pull down the garage door when he realised a figure had come out from behind a large tree. The person was wearing a balaclava.

The incident seemed to have lasted only seconds and Mr Cumming reached his door and alerted his wife. The jury has heard he suffered some 40 injuries, including cuts and stab wounds, which had left him scarred for life. He said he could not remember many of the injuries being inflicted.

Mr Cumming said he had made a deliberate attempt to “put myself back together” and get on with life, although he still sometimes felt concerned driving up the dark lane.

Defence counsel Mhairi Richards, QC, pressed Mr Cumming on his assertion that nothing had been said during the attack, and he insisted the man had remained absolutely silent.

The trial continues.