A man accused of murdering a Trainspotting T2 actor objected to an identity parade because he appeared too tanned, a court has heard.
Bradley Welsh, 48, was fatally shot at his flat in the west end of Edinburgh on April 17 2019.
Sean Orman, 30, has pleaded not guilty to all 15 charges against him, including murder, attempted murder, firearms and drugs offences, and is on trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Giving evidence today, Pc David Cuthbert told how he had rejected complaints by the accused and his solicitor about the video identification parade process, known as Viper, after his arrest in April 2019.
The court heard images taken for the purposes of the exercise were deemed by Orman to show him with too dark a complexion compared to the others taking part in the line-up.
Pc Cuthbert, 44, said: ‘The accused went through the process and he made a comment, on memory on his complexion being more tanned than others.
Bradley Welsh, 48, (pictured in Trainspotting T2 as Doyle) was fatally shot at his flat in the west end of Edinburgh on April 17 2019
‘I had recorded it in my statement. I also made the solicitor aware that that comment had been made.
‘The solicitor did not attend.’
It was heard the solicitor attended a later Viper process on May 6 2019 where he also objected to the line-up.
Ian Duguid QC, defence counsel, then read the legal representative’s complaint which included worries about media reports of a tanned suspect.
It said: ‘I wasn’t invited as his solicitor to engage in the Viper process on April 22 2019.
‘There don’t appear to be any stand-ins of sufficiently similar complexion i.e. he quite clearly is tanned.
Forensic teams at the scene of the shooting of Trainspotting 2 star Bradley Welsh at Chester Street in Edinburgh, Scotland. April 18, 2019
Tributes to the actor outside of his home following the murder, Mr Walsh also appeared in an episode of Danny Dyer’s Deadliest Men
‘There don’t appear to be any other stand-ins that are tanned.
‘It’s more significant when there have been reports in the media of a tanned suspect.
‘My objection is that for these reasons that the parade as it is constituted is unfair.’
The court was told the officer’s response was that he noted the objection but he deemed the stand-ins were fair in terms of appearances.
A joint minute shows Orman attended Indigo Sun tanning salon in Edinburgh nine times between March 9 2019 and April 12 2019.
Bradley Welsh, 48, who starred alongside Ewan McGregor in the film, died after a shooting at his flat in New Town, Edinburgh, on April 17, 2019
Boxing coach Bradley Welsh (pictured in 2015) was fatally shot at his flat in Edinburgh in 2019
The court heard that it is possible the same type of gun fired at another property in Edinburgh was used to kill Mr Welsh.
Giving evidence on Thursday, ballistics expert Martin Connolly said examinations of discharged ammunition found in a flat and during Mr Welsh’s post-mortem examination showed they were ‘indistinguishable’.
The court also heard that cartridges found at another property in the city were similar to those fired at Mr Welsh and in the flat.
Richard Goddard QC, advocate depute, said: ‘When we draw the threads of all that together, one explanation for all these is the same type of gun and ammunition were used to shoot Bradley Welsh and floor in Duddingston Row and that the cartridges at Hawkhill Close were the same type and manufacture of cartridge used to shoot both Bradley Welsh and the floor at Duddingston Row.’
The scene in April 2019 following the shooting as forensic officers scour the area near floral tributes
Mr Connolly, 57, added: ‘Yes, that’s possible.’
The court has previously heard from Dean White, who claimed to have seen Orman fire an ‘old-style’ shotgun into the floor of his brother’s property on Duddingston Row.
Mr Connolly, who works for the Scottish Police Authority, said a double-barrelled sawn-off shotgun recovered by police and shown to the court was manufactured in Belgium between the 1890s and 1960s.
The trial, before judge Lord Beckett, continues.
