A ONE-legged drug addict threatened a father-of-two with a hypodermic needle in front of his children, a court heard today.
Rebecca Mughal pulled the syringe out at Robert Wilkinson after he caught her taking drugs in the stairwell of his Edinburgh flat.
Mughal held the needle in front of her chest and said "I can stick something in you" then jabbed it at Mr Wilkinso
n, he told a jury at Edinburgh Sheriff Court today.
Mughal, 27, is on trial accused of threatening Mr Wilkinson with violence, shouting and swearing and threatening to stab him with a hypodermic needle in the common stair in Lauriston Place in May.
She denies the allegations.
Mr Wilkinson, who is the associate dean of Napier University's business school, told the court that the front door lock had been broken before the incident and was due to be replaced by the city council.
In the two months since it was broken the couple had found syringes and other drug-taking equipment in the close several times.
Then on May 13, he and his wife were leaving their home with their children aged 12 and 13 when they noticed Mughal in the stairwell with a man.
When he told the pair to leave, Mughal replied: "We need somewhere to shoot our smack in."
"I said 'well you are not doing it in here, get out'," said Mr Wilkinson, 43.
"They were starting to leave and to move towards the door.
"She stopped just inside the doorway and turned round and said 'well I can stick something in you'."
"At that point there was a short jab.
"I couldn't say it was an attempted stab but it was certainly showing a motion.
"I could see a length of what I remember being orange and white plastic and what looked like an orange stopper. It was a syringe.
"She was holding it up in front of her chest, it was tucked in rather than held out.
"I was shocked, everything happened so fast.
"I was aware there was drug use and I was aware what that needle could be," he added.
Victoria Wilkinson told the court she had seen Mughal in the stairwell once before and knew she had an artificial leg.
She had dialled 999 and was on the phone to police when she saw Mughal holding a syringe and saw her husband back away, she told the court.
"She was pointing the syringe upwards then whipped it behind her back," said Mrs Wilkinson.
"I was scared," she added.
The trial, before Sheriff Derrick McIntyre, continues.
The full article contains 439 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
