THE senior lawyer acting for the man accused of murdering teenager Elaine Doyle has completed his case.
Advocate Donald Findlay QC closed the defence case at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday afternoon.
Mr Findlay represents 49-year-old John Docherty, of Dunoon, Argyll, who denies murdering 16-year-old Elaine in Greenock in June 1986.
Yesterday, following Mr Findlay's closing speech, prosecutor John Scullion told the court that his closing comments would last the whole of today.
Docherty denies murder and claims that at the time he is alleged to have stripped and strangled Elaine, he was with his parents - who are no longer alive - at their home in Anne Street, Greenock.
He has also lodged a special defence of incrimination, claiming the culprit might be among a list of 41 names taken from files of the police investigation into the murder.
The charge alleges that on June 2, 1986 in a lane near Elaine Doyle's home in Ardgowan Street, Greenock, he seized her by the hair, struck her on the head and either removed or compelled her to remove her clothing.
The charge goes on to allege that Docherty forced Elaine to the ground, pushed her face into the ground, sat or knelt on the teenager and then placed a ligature around her neck and strangled her.
The trial, before judge Lord Stewart, continues.
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