Teen accused of kicking murder victim in the head ‘had blood on his shoes’

Samantha Law, 16, told the High Court in Edinburgh she witnessed an attack on Brett Lodge, which included blows dealt with a baseball bat.

The former Liberton High School pupil also said she saw one of the accused, Andrew Parfinowski, 18, with blood on his shoes 15 minutes later and he discussed the stains before throwing up.

Ms Law was giving evidence yesterday on the fourth day of the trial of Parfinowski, Declan Robertson, 17, Bradley Lumsden, 17, and Cameron McKail, 17. The four teenagers have all denied murdering Lodge, 17, on July 9 last year and attempting to defeat the ends of justice by trying to hide evidence related to the alleged attack.

Ms Law went to the party at Lumsden’s house in Claverhouse Drive, Liberton, withfriends. After seeing Robertson arguing with Brett, she went out to a grassy area next to the house with other party-goers and witnessed an attack.

She told the court that  Parfinowski punched Brett before Robertson struck the victim with a bat “on the temple, on the side of the head”.

The teenager said that McKail also struck Brett with “something” and Parfinowski had kicked the victim’s head while he lay on the ground.

After leaving the scene when an ambulance arrived, Ms Law said she saw Parfinowski a quarter of an hour later. She told the court: “He had blood on his shoes and he was talking about that. We were in a stair. Andy was being sick.”

Later, the court heard from fellow party-goer, Michaela O’Neill, who said she had been in the living room when Brett Lodge came downstairs “looking angry” at about “8.15pm to 8.30pm”.

Worried about him, Ms O’Neill said that she grabbed her shoes, bag and jacket and followed him outside to the grassy area, where she saw Robertson and McKail arguing with Brett as a crowd of teenage party-goers gathered.

She said: “Cameron and Declan had baseball bats. They were in their trousers and they pulled them out and started hitting Brett. They both had two hands on the bats. It was proper forceful.”

Ms O’Neill said that McKail struck Brett “five or six times” while Robertson hit him “four times” between the shoulder and the top of his skull.

“Brett was shouting things but nobody could hear what he was saying,” she added. “I was shocked. I’d never witnessed anything like this. I was only 15 at the time.

“Brett remained standing until Declan hit him in the temple. He just fell face flat. That was when blood appeared. As soon as that happened, I phoned for an ambulance.”

She said Parfinowski also punched Brett as he lay helpless. She said: “I knelt down and tried to speak to Brett. I said, ‘Come on Brett, speak’ because his eyes were shut.”

The trial before temporary judge John Morris QC continues.