Achi news desk-
Paul Black, from Edinburgh, denies murdering 75-year-old Peter Coshan at his flat in Leith on either August 11 or 12, 2022.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard on Thursday that Black contacted the retired Fettes College biology professor on Gaydar and WhatsApp and lured him to the property on Seafield Road, where he was subjected to a murderous attack.
It is then alleged that he hid the body in the Edinburgh area for a number of days before placing it in a stolen suitcase and driving it to a layby on the A696 between Otterburn and Belsay in Northumberland.
The court heard that after trying to dig a grave, he dropped the body next to a wall, got rid of the suitcase, and tried to get rid of clothes and other items belonging to Mr Coshan.
Deputy advocate John Keenan KC told the court that Mr Coshan, who had Parkinson’s disease, called a taxi to take him towards Seafield Road at around 11.30pm on August 11 2022, and arrived there just before midnight.
He said two of Mr Coshan’s friends, who also worked at Fettes College, alerted the police after growing concern for his welfare after he stopped answering their messages.
Their suspicions grew, Mr Keenan said, when they received a reply from Mr Coshan at around 6am on August 13 reading: “Sorry the phone has been playing up fixing Tom.”
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Mr Keenan described this message as “out of character” for Mr Coshan, who used correct grammar and did not use abbreviations such as “Tom” (meaning “tomorrow”), leading his friends, he said, to suspect “that the WhatsApp message had not been written by Peter.”
The court was told that in the days after the killing, Black withdrew a number of cash from Mr Coshan’s bank account, and used his bank cards to make a number of purchases.
Mr Keenan said these included the purchase of an £860 Tag Heuer watch and £4,300 worth of euros from the Ramsdens pawnshops in Leith on the morning of August 12.
The court also heard that Black used Mr Coshan’s cards on August 13 to take out two car insurance policies, with one policy for the Vauxhall Vectra car he allegedly used to transport Mr Coshan’s body to Northumberland.
Black, who appeared in court wearing a white T-shirt and blue tracksuit top, has pleaded not guilty to 18 charges.
The trial continues.
