A professional footballer has told a jury he had to run to a neighbour’s home for safety after being the victim of a carjacking outside his waterfront flat.
Luke Strachan – grandson of former Scotland and Celtic manager Gordon Strachan – said he was forced to flee from his VW Golf by a duo with a weapon.
Mr Strachan, who was 19 and playing for Dundee FC at the time, said he had arrived home and was sitting checking his phone when a stranger appeared at his door.
He told the jury at Dundee Sheriff Court: “A man approached my driver’s side door. The window was open a little bit and the man asked ‘can I get a lift?’
“I said ‘no, sorry, I’ve just come back and I’m going in for the night.’ They pulled the door of the car open and demanded I get out. I was scared.
“It felt like a long period of time, but I’m not sure how long it actually was. There was a bit of a struggle. They attempted to pull me out of the car by my clothing.
“He kept trying to pull harder. I didn’t originally see the second person to start with, but they came into view from around the back of my car.
“The other person came round the side after I was refusing to leave the car. He pulled the handle of something out of his big jacket and said ‘get out’.
“At that point I thought it was best just to get out the car to avoid anything else. I got straight out of the car. The keys were left in the car.
“There were neighbours across the street who were watching what was going on,” Mr Strachan, now 23, told the jury.
“They shouted at me to come inside their flat – I assumed for my own safety. It was just a group of boys. I was not that familiar with them, but had seen them in passing.
“We watched them trying to take my car. They got inside my car. It appeared that they couldn’t work the handbrake of my car. The car was trying to move backwards out of the space, but it wasn’t actually going anywhere.
“I had seen the car revving and trying to push back. The boys were on the phone to police and shouted down to the two men in my car that the police were on their way.
“It looked like they accepted they couldn’t drive the car and got out then and ran off. It was longer than seconds. It probably felt a lot longer than it actually was.”
Mr Strachan, who is currently playing at Brechin City on loan from Cove Rangers, said he identified accused Derek Alland from a book of police mugshots.
He identified Alland in the dock as the first man to approach his car in Thorter Row in Dundee’s City Quay area on 28 October 2020.
The court was told that the two men – one of whom was wearing a snood over his face – were seen to run off. Witnesses described Alland as wearing a parka.
The jury was told that when Alland spotted police approaching him, he ran off to try and evade capture.
Alland, 29, Seagate, Dundee, denies assaulting Luke Strachan by seizing his body and pulling him out of a motor car and robbing him of the vehicle.
The trial, before Sheriff Tim Niven-Smith, continues. Mr Strachan, who described himself in evidence as a professional footballer, is the son of Celtic first team coach Gavin Strachan.
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