A doctor has told Aberdeen Sheriff Court how she tried to help a middle-aged couple who had been hit by a police car.

Dr Alison Green was giving evidence at the trial of PC Andrew Baynes who denies driving dangerously, at excessive speed and causing an accident which led to the deaths of Sydney and Christine Carey

The court was told that Dr Green ran from her flat on Great Western Road, Aberdeen, on a Sunday morning in November, 1998, after being told there had been an accident nearby.

The first thing she saw was a police car which she said had been obviously damaged.

Legs amputated

Dr Green spoke to the driver, PC Baynes, who pointed to two people lying on the ground.

She examined Mr Carey, 56, but found he was not breathing and certified him dead. She then turned to Mrs Carey who was semi-conscious and groaning.

Dr Green also discovered the woman's legs had been amputated in the accident.

Two ambulances arrived and Mrs Carey, 61, was given oxygen and taken to hospital where she died later.

Before Dr Green gave evidence, the jury was told by Sheriff Principal Douglas Risk that an elderly woman witness who appeared on the first day of the trial had died.

Frances Mitchell, 83, collapsed moments after stepping from the witness box.

Public duty

The sheriff said Mrs Mitchell had taken her public duty as a witness seriously and added the death was very sad.

The court has already heard that PC Baynes was on his way to an armed robbery when he clipped a parked vehicle, mounted the pavement and pinned the couple to the wall of a granite tenement.

Mr Carey, a former oil worker, bore the brunt of the impact with the Vauxhall Omega.

The trial before Sheriff Principal Douglas Risk continues.