'Wrong lane' claims in death case

Isaac Purcell has admitted driving the car which hit Jack

A man who drove a car which hit and killed an Edinburgh boy was seen earlier driving on the wrong side of the road, a court has heard.

Isaac Purcell, 26, has denied the murder of 10-year-old Jack Anderson.

He has been accused of speeding on a number of Edinburgh roads before hitting Jack on Saughton Road North.

Mr Purcell has also denied failing to stop after the accident and abandoning his vehicle. The trial continues at the High Court in Glasgow.

The prosecution has lodged an alternative charge for Mr Purcell of causing death by dangerous driving, which he has denied.

He pulled away at the most enormous speed, I hadn't seen a car accelerate as fast as that Christine Styles Trial witness

Mr Purcell has denied further allegations of driving without insurance and failing to report an accident.

Witness Christine Styles, 63, said she saw a dark green saloon car pull out of a line of stationary traffic on St John's Road in Corstorphine shortly after 1515 BST on 5 October last year - the day of the crash.

She told the court the car, which was in front of a police car, nosed very, very slowly out of the traffic.

She said: "I thought it was going to do a u-turn but he just very slowly pulled out and came right on to my side of the road.

"He pulled away at the most enormous speed, I hadn't seen a car accelerate as fast as that."

Advocate-depute Alex Prentice QC asked Ms Styles if she saw the driver, which she said she did.

The witness then identified the driver as Mr Purcell who was sitting in the dock.

The accused denies murdering Jack in the crash last year

Ms Styles said: "I just looked at the driver in amazement... that he was prepared to pull out and risk other people's lives as well as his own."

Another witness, Sandra Wyllie, said she saw the green car, a Peugeot 406, at about 1526 BST that day.

She told the court it was speeding up past Corstorphine Primary School on Corstorphine High Street.

Mrs Wyllie, 41, estimated that the car was travelling between 50mph and 55mph in what, at that time of day, was a 20mph zone, the court heard.

She said the vehicle continued along the road before swerving on to the opposite carriageway to overtake two to three cars queuing at a junction.

The witness said the speed of the car was "quite scary".

Defence counsel Tony Lenahan suggested to the witnesses that hearing reports later that day of the death of Jack Anderson had coloured their subsequent impressions of what they saw.

Ms Styles replied that her description of what she had seen was absolutely true.