Man 'felt forced to jump to death after torture'

Jamie Forbes died in January

A man felt forced to jump to his death from a 12th storey Aberdeen flat to escape a man who had spent two days torturing him, a court has heard.

Lee Smith, 37, abducted Jamie Forbes, also 37, and held him against his will at his flat in Elphinstone Court in January.

Smith repeatedly struck his victim with a hammer and punched and kicked him during the assault, before Mr Forbes made the jump that ended his life.

Smith admitted culpable homicide at the High Court in Edinburgh. He will be sentenced next month.

Judge Lady Hood heard how the abuse inflicted on Mr Forbes was so bad that he had no other option but to jump out the window.

His body was found on the ground on 15 January.

Leanne McQuillan, prosecuting, told the court police officers arrived shortly afterwards.

They discovered that the lock of the flat had been adjusted which would have prevented Mr Forbes from leaving.

They found Smith washing up in his kitchen, and bloodstains throughout the flat.

The incident happened in Aberdeen

Ms McQuillan said: "The accused informed the officers that he was refusing to clean up the blood in the living room as it wasn't his and he was waiting for the deceased to do it."

She said that Mr Forbes was last captured on CCTV entering the block on 14 January.

The next morning a contractor working nearby heard a male voice shouting for the police. At the same time a nearby resident also reported hearing a male repeatedly shouting for help but wasn’t sure where it came from. She called 999.

A resident of the 10th floor heard a male voice repeatedly shouting "please help me".

He went out onto the balcony to try and work out where it was coming from but could not see anyone. He believed the shouting was coming from above him.

Two residents who lived directly above the accused also heard shouting for help. They looked down and saw the window below was open and saw a male shouting for help and the police.

A number of other witnesses saw a male at a window of the flat with blood on his face calling for help. There were more calls made to the police.

Significant injuries

Ms McQuillan said: "Police officers attended and made door-to-door enquiries on the 6th, 7th and 8th floor but were not able to trace the source of the shouting.

"They left the locus advising the construction workers to call back if the shouting started again."

The court heard that two witnesses went into Smith's flat and saw the victim lying on the living room floor in a pool of blood.

They left, and Mr Forbes jumped from the property.

Ms McQuillan said a post-mortem examination carried out on Mr Forbes found injuries that were “significant and catastrophic”.

Defence advocate Mark Stewart KC said that Smith and Mr Forbes had been “friends” with each other and were “habitual drug users”.

He said: “The taking of drugs do not provide an excuse but an explanation in this case.”

Lady Hood deferred sentence for the court to obtain reports.

Smith is due to be sentenced at the High Court in Inverness on 29 November.

In a statement at the time, the family of Mr Forbes said: "Jamie was a much-loved son, grandson, uncle, nephew, cousin and forever loved brother and brother-in-law."