Witness relives car bonnet death

Lee Caithness said Mr Findlay had climbed onto the bonnet of the car

A teenager has described to a court how he watched a friend being thrown from the bonnet of a car he had climbed on to.

Lee Caithness, 19, was a passenger in Matthew Duffy's car when their friend Chris Findlay carried out the stunt on the Orkney island of Stronsay.

The 17-year-old died from head and neck injuries four days after falling from Mr Duffy's car.

Mr Duffy denies causing his death by dangerous driving on 24 May 2008.

Mr Caithness told the High Court in Inverness that the group of friends had been drinking in the run-up to the tragedy.

He also revealed how Mr Duffy, who was 17 at the time, had not passed his driving test but that this was legal on the remote Scottish island.

Mr Caithness said Mr Findlay had "climbed on to the bonnet" of Mr Duffy's Isuzu Trooper.

I got out of the car and I saw Chris lying on the ground. I got quite emotional Lee Caithness

He said: "He had his arms spread out in front of him, almost like a star, and he was facing toward the car windscreen.

"He was lying face down on the bonnet. The car set off. I was worried. It was like a normal set off and there was acceleration.

"The car came to a halt and Chris left the bonnet and hit the ground. It came to a halt as if the brakes had been applied. It was with reasonable force, I would say."

The witness said he could not recall the distance that the car had travelled before it stopped.

He said: "I got out of the car and I saw Chris lying on the ground. I got quite emotional.

"He was bleeding from his head and was lying unconscious and motionless. He was lying bundled on his right side, like in a pile."

Mr Caithness, a quantity surveying student at Napier University in Edinburgh, said each of the friends had drunk about two or three cans of alcohol before the incident.

Mr Duffy is accused of driving the car at speed while under the influence of alcohol and while Mr Findlay was lying on the bonnet, then braking sharply and causing him to fall from the car and strike his head on the ground.

The trial before Judge Lord Morris continues.