A MURDER accused allegedly confessed to another prisoner while he was on remand, a jury heard today (Monday).

Steven Thomson was in Perth Prison when he was befriended by a trusted ‘passman’, the High Court at Livingston was told.

Privileged prisoner Liam McIlduff claimed that he had asked Thomson several times about the murder of Dunfermline man Duncan Banks while they smoked cannabis together in ‘A’ Hall.

Mr McIlduff, 24, from Rosyth, said Thomson had admitted to him that he had “cracked him over the heid” with a hammer.

He said: “He just told me basically he went and had a smoke with the guy and basically it got out of hand, and that.

“Basically I don’t know if it was in the context of trying to intimidate me because I had a bit of cannabis. I don’t know if it was him telling me he’d done it.

“He said he hit him with a hammer. He went to have a smoke and then ‘chameleoned’ it.

 “It’s hard to explain a chameleon, basically smuggling something.”

Mr McIlduff said Thomson told him he had “striked the guy with a hammer - cracked him over the heid with it".

Asked if the accused had said if he’d got anything as a result of the assault he replied: “Very little, or something. He didn’t say an exact number. It was very little.

“I heard the phrase ‘a monkey’. That was the phrase he used. He said he got a monkey.”

Mr McIlduff said he later learned that a monkey was £500. However, he also admitted telling police in a separate statement that Thomson had stolen £150 from his alleged victim.

He said: “ I think because he started to trust me he opened up about it. He said: “I might be f***ed for it. I might no.”

Advocate depute Alex Prentice asked: “At the time Steven Thomson spoke with you on this matter did he make any reference as to what he was intending to do as far as Duncan Banks was concerned?”

“Tax him,” Mr McIlduff said, using street slang for stealing drugs and cash from someone.

He added: “He said he was planning to rob Duncan Banks of his drugs and money. He said he went and did it ‘pure chameleon’. By that he meant he went in and actually did have a smoke with Duncan Banks and then his plan was to rob him of his drugs which was heroin and money.

“He said he had a hammer with him and I also remember him saying something about it coming from a shed and somebody had been questioned because it was missing and whoever that person was had maybe stuck him in.”

Under cross-examination by defence counsel Derek Ogg, he claimed he was unaware of  the £10,000 reward offered for information leading to the apprehension and conviction of the murderer. He said: “I had no idea there was a reward. I’m not interested in a reward.

“The polis opened my mind up to the mum of the victim and how heartbroken she was for her son.

“They explained to me the grieving mum of the victim was wanting answers for her son. That’s why I gave them the statement.

“I do have morals.”

He admitted that it was possible that Thomson had been talking to him about the summary of evidence about the case which he got from the prosecution while in Perth Prison.

He said: “I was absolutely stoned. I think to myself (it was either) a confession or what’s believed to have happened. I’m not 100 per cent sure.”

Thomson, 29, a prisoner at Perth, is on trial accused of murdering Duncan and of possessing heroin. 

He denies the charges and has lodged a special defence ofincrimination claiming that a mutual friend, Jamie Curtis, murdered Duncan.

Thomson is charged with repeatedly hitting the dead man on the head with a blunt object or objects to his severe injury and robbing him of a money, heroin, a wallet and a key.

He is also charged with possessing the Class A drug at Duncan’s home and elsewhere in Dunfermline between July 1 and October 13, 2015.

The trial, before Lady Rae, continues.