A woman claims her ex-boyfriend confessed to killing a man and cutting off his limbs.
Anne Melville, 41, insists David Collins, 46, called her crying and admitted: “I hurt my best friend’s brother.”
He is charged with stabbing Kevin Bishop, 32, before dumping his dismembered corpse in a bin outside his flat.
Collins yesterday denied murder during a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
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Ms Melville gave evidence against her former partner and claimed he phoned her to admit attacking Kevin.
She said: “He was very drunk.
“I could hardly make out what he was saying at first.
“He said he hurt his best friend’s brother.
“He said that Kevin came into his house and tried to rob him.
“He pulled out a knife.
“David pulled out his knife and he hit Kevin.
“Kevin died instantly, according to David.
“I said to him he needs to phone the police and an ambulance.
“He was crying.
“He didn’t sound like himself.
“I asked him could he go check Kevin was okay.
“He said no and that he was gone.
“I asked him again, ‘can you go make sure?’
“I didn’t think it was true.
“I didn’t believe he had actually done this.
“He said Kevin was gone.”
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The dad’s torso was found wrapped in plastic and stuff in a suitcase in a wheelie bin outside Collins’ flat in Paisley’s Schaw Road.
His head, arms and legs have never been recovered.
Kevin had been missing for more than a week before his remains were found.
Forensics teams cordoned off a block of flats after the grim find last August 13.
The court heard the accused had been pals with Kevin’s brother.
Ms Melville had dated Collins in the 1990s and they have a daughter, 21.
She says she asked him what he had done with his body.
The jury heard: “I said to him, ‘what are you going to do, fire him in a wheelie bin?’
“David said, ‘half of him is already away. His head’s away, legs and arms away. I am only left with the torso.’
“I asked him where they where.
“He said, ‘I wrapped them up in bin bags and put them in the bin and they are gone.’”
Ms Melville says she spoke to Collins again the following day and he sounded “distraught”.
She visited days later with their daughter to celebrate his birthday last August 1.
He asked them to bring a suitcase which had been left at her home.
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Ms Melville says she brought it to his flat and found him in a bedroom trying to load a plastic-wrapped bundle into it.
She added: “I saw something on the floor wrapped in plastic.
“He was trying to lift it to put it in the suitcase.
“It was maybe two-feet by one-and-a-half-feet.
“The suitcase was by the plastic thing.
“He lifted it and put it into the suitcase.
“He tried to zip it up and the buzzer went and he got a fright.”
Ms Melville says she left the flat shortly after and Melville brought in his bins.
She insists she watched him stuff the suitcase into one before dousing it in aftershave.
The court heard: “David brought the green suitcase downstairs and put it in the bin.
“I saw him doing this.
“He also smashed two bottles of aftershave on top of the bin.
“He brought a machete from the house and smashed the tops off.
“It was a brown-handled machete about a foot-and-a-half long.
“He was trying to mask the smell of the bin with the aftershave.
“It was cheap stuff.
“He told me it was two weeks until the next bin uplift.
“I told him it was going to smell.
“I told him to phone the police.
“But he said they wouldn’t believe that it was an accident.”
Ms Melville says she visited Collins’ flat top-floor flat once more before Kevin’s remains were discovered.
She described his bathroom as being unusually tidy.
The mum added: “Before there would be bottles of shampoo sitting with dust on them.
“This time everything was just very clean.”
Collins is accused of murdering Kevin with a machete between July 27 and August 1 last year.
He pleads not guilty and claims self defence.
He is accused of dismembering his body, dumping his limbs and wrapping his torso in bags before stuffing it in a suitcase and shoving it in a bin.
He faces allegations he doused the remains in bleach and aftershave in a bid to conceal the killing.
The trial, before Lady Rae, continues.
