Dog 'led man to girlfriend's body'

The hill is a popular beauty spot

A man has told a murder trial how his girlfriend's dog led him to her blood-stained body.

Gordon McKenzie said he had gone out to look for Anne Nicoll after she failed to return from walking her Airedale terrier, Sophie, on Dundee's Law Hill.

He told the High Court in Forfar that the dog came up behind him then walked to a wooded area.

Anne Nicoll set out to walk her dog

It was there that he found Miss Nicoll's body among thick undergrowth.

The 33-year-old civil servant was giving evidence at the trial of 16-year-old Robbie McIntosh.

The teenager is charged with murdering Miss Nicoll, of Byron Street, Dundee, by stabbing her with a knife or similar instrument and stamping on her face on 2 August last year.

Mr McIntosh, whose address was given as Rossie School in Rossie, near Montrose, denies the charge.

He has lodged a special defence of incrimination, naming someone else as the killer.

She led me back a bit along the path and that is when I saw Anne's body lying there

Gordon McKenzie

Mr McKenzie told the trial that Miss Nicoll walked her dog, which lived with her father nearby, every morning and evening.

The 34-year-old civil servant was regularly seen in the Law Hill area.

Mr McKenzie, who also lives in Byron Street, said Miss Nicoll had been due to return about 45 minutes after she took Sophie for a walk.

He went to look for her when she failed to return home.

"While I was looking for Anne, I was aware that Sophie the dog had approached me from behind," he said.

Thick undergrowth

"I tried to get Sophie to come with me... but she went into the wooded area and backtracked. I followed her.

"She led me back a bit along the path and that is when I saw Anne's body lying there."

He said her body had been hidden by thick undergrowth.

He used a mobile phone to call an ambulance and rang his and Miss Nicoll's parents.

Gordon McKenzie found the body

The court had earlier heard how one dog walker had become "apprehensive" after passing a "lad" wearing a blue baseball hat and tracksuit on a pathway leading to the hill.

Christina Kerr, 68, said: "I turned round to call the dog as he was a bit behind and this person in the blue was turning round looking at me.

"I told myself I'd better get out of here quickly."

Advocate depute Brian McConnachie, prosecuting, asked why she felt apprehensive.

Mrs Kerr replied: "Just the look of him. He just turned and looked and I thought 'oh dear'.

Identification parade

"He just appeared from nowhere and passed me by and kept looking at me."

She said Mr McIntosh was like the boy she had passed on the night of Miss Nicoll's death.

However, she admitted that she had failed to pick him out at an earlier identification parade.

The jury of nine women and six men were also shown photographs of Miss Nicoll's body, which showed her face and neck heavily stained with blood.

The trial, before Lord Bonomy, continues.