Alan Bennett: Paid prostitute £100 minutes before death
A businessman paid a prostitute £100 for sex minutes before he was allegedly stabbed to death by her boyfriend, a court heard on Thursday.
Julie Carroll, 24, told a murder trial how she had planned to rob the insurance broker in an Aberdeen lane to get cash for drugs. But the street worker claimed her then boyfriend Paul Balgowan, also 24, ran into the dark alley demanding more money and stabbed her client.
Balgowan is on trial at the High Court in Aberdeen for murdering 56-year-old Alan Bennett who was on his way home from a works night out on May 30 last year.
On Thursday Carroll admitted the couple had been robbing her clients for about four months before Mr Bennett's death. She told the court: "I would get the client somewhere quiet then Paul would come in and scare them with a knife so we would get money."
When asked if she had ever seen him use the knife to hurt anyone, she replied, “no”.
She said she had led Alan Bennett into the Oldmill Road lane after agreeing to have sex for £80 and he gave her £20 extra. Asked what happened next, she said: "He (Paul) came running down the lane. Before that, Alan had slapped my arse and Paul said, 'What you doing with my wife?'
"Alan said, 'Your wife? I thought it was a prostitute, I was away to shag her'.
"That's when Paul came charging down for money. Alan punched Paul, Paul punched him back and then stabbed him in the leg. He's nae one for using knives against people, I think it was just to get him down. That's when we all fell. Alan managed to let go of me and I got up and walked away.”
Carroll said she walked back to the hostel without looking back. When Balgowan returned to their homeless accommodation later he told her Mr Bennett had got up and walked away.
She claimed it was not until the streets were cordoned off by police the next day that she realised he was dead. Carroll said she used the £100 to buy drugs the following day and claimed she robbed clients to fund her heroin addiction.
She told the court she had worked as a sex worker for around four years and only started robbing clients when she met Balgowan. Carrol denied suggestions that she had stabbed Mr Bennett herself because there was a struggle over his wallet.
Carroll, who originally faced the same murder charge as her ex-boyfriend, plead guilty to a reduced charge of culpable homicide earlier this week.
The court heard the couple split up a few weeks ago because Balgowan started blaming her for the murder. Asked why she changed her mind, she said: "At the end of the day, I took the man there to get robbed so, in my eyes, it was my fault he got stabbed."
However, giving evidence in the afternoon, Balgowan insisted it was Carroll who stabbed Mr Bennett while trying to break up the fight. He said: "The knife fell out of my sleeve after the second punch when I fell to the ground.
"Whilst we were fighting, I saw Julie went towards the knife. She just started hitting into him. I thought she was just punching him trying to get him off me."
He told the court he shoved Mr Bennett off him and the couple ran away and threw the knife in some bushes, before using Mr Bennett's cash to score more drugs. He insisted he did not know anyone had been murdered until the next day.
The jury heard that Carroll begged him to "take the rap" for her and promised she would stand by him when he went to prison.
He said: "She started crying saying she couldn't handle the jail. I loved her, she was the love of my life. I didn't want to lose her and was trying to protect her. I would do anything for her. She said she would come in and marry me and stand by me."
Balgowan was charged with murder, attempt to pervert the course of justice and conspiracy to rob and assault other men. However, on Wednesday, all charges except the murder charge were dropped to allow the jury to concentrate on the most serious allegation.
He denies the charge and the trial continues.
