Court hears of needle jab threat

Dr Robert Wilkinson gave evidence at Edinburgh Sheriff Court

A woman drug user threatened a father-of-two with a hypodermic needle in front of his children in Edinburgh, a court has heard.

Rebecca Mughal pulled the syringe on Dr Robert Wilkinson, 43, after he caught her taking drugs in his flat stairwell.

Ms Mughal jabbed it at Dr Wilkinson in May, he told a jury at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday.

Ms Mughal, 27, denies threatening Dr Wilkinson with violence, shouting and swearing and threatening to stab him.

Dr Wilkinson, who is the associate dean of Napier University business school, told the court the door lock to the common stair in Lauriston Place had been broken before the incident and was due to be replaced by Edinburgh City Council.

I was shocked, everything happened so fast Dr Robert Wilkinson

In the two months since it was broken he had found syringes and other drug-taking equipment in the close several times.

Then on 13 May, he and his wife, Victoria Wilkinson, were leaving their home with their children aged 12 and 13 when they noticed Ms Mughal in the stairwell with a man. Dr Wilkinson asked them to leave.

He said: "They were starting to leave and to move towards the door.

"She stopped just inside the doorway and turned round and said 'well I can stick something in you'. At that point there was a short jab.

"I couldn't say it was an attempted stab but it was certainly showing a motion.

"I could see a length of what I remember being orange and white plastic and what looked like an orange stopper. It was a syringe.

"I was shocked, everything happened so fast."

Mrs Wilkinson told the court she had seen Ms Mughal in the stairwell once before and recognised her as she had an artificial leg.

She had dialled 999 and was on the phone to police when she saw Ms Mughal holding a syringe and saw her husband back away, she told the court.

"She was pointing the syringe upwards then whipped it behind her back," said Mrs Wilkinson.

"I was scared," she added.

The trial, before Sheriff Derrick McIntyre, continues.