AN IT worker accused of holding up two campers with a gun admitted owning a weapon but claimed he had never taken it out of the house, a court heard today.
Karim Bourouba is alleged to have pointed a gun at Liam Harrison, 20, and demanded his girlfriend remove and hand over her underpants.
It is claimed Bourouba, 29, then sniffed the pants before throwing them away, at Calton Hill in Edinburgh in May
2008.
Bourouba, of William Street, Edinburgh, is on trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court accused of assault, robbery, breach of the peace and firearms offences, all of which he denies.
Mr Harrison and his girlfriend claim Bourouba approached them in their tent on Calton Hill, pulled out a gun and robbed them of the pants before walking with Mr Harrison to buy cigarettes from a Scotmid store in Nicholson Square.
The jury was today shown a video recording of Bourouba's interview with police days after the alleged incident.
In it, Bourouba admitted he had bought an imitation gun over the internet two weeks earlier, and said it was the same one as a character in a computer game used.
But he denied ever taking the gun out of the house, and told police "I'm not that stupid".
He told officers he went to Calton Hill after leaving a work event "completely hammered" around 8pm on 22 May, but said he left the hill before darkness fell.
He initially claimed he had first met the couple when Mr Harrison approached him at a cash machine on North Bridge later that night.
But Bourouba, who lives with his girlfriend, later admitted lying to police after it emerged he had met the pair much earlier after tripping over their tent on Calton Hill.
He denied having a gun with him and denied holding up the couple, making sexual remarks and robbing them of the woman's underwear.
Former Army cadet Bourouba said he had been feeling depressed because of problems at work and had gone to the hill to "get away and not be surrounded by noise".
"I didn't go up there for anything more than to sit and sort my head out," Bourouba told police.
"I didn't take a gun with me, I didn't hold these kids up, I didn't say these things.
"I didn't rob them at gun point. I didn't have the gun out of the house," he added.
Bourouba denied having an "unhealthy" interest in firearms.
"I have an interest in firearms, I have a cap gun at home but that's as far as it goes, I'm not a gangster," he said.
Bourouba also denied giving Mr Harrison a 10 euro note, and said it "must have fallen out of his pocket".
The trial, before Sheriff Deirdre MacNeill, continues.
