A WOMAN driver yesterday relived the day she was the victim of an armed carjacker.
The High Court in Glasgow heard that a man brandishing a knife jumped into 22-year-old Julie McGowan's Nissan Micra and shouted: "Drive, drive."
The man entered the car at 9am, minutes after she had collected the Micra, a courtesy car, and filled
it with petrol.
He struck as she was waiting to turn right at a roundabout in Biggar Street, Glasgow, on 22 January, last year.
Miss McGowan told John Hamilton, prosecuting: "He opened the door, held out a map and said: 'Do you know where this is?' and randomly pointed.
"I asked him to shut the door, but he jumped into the car, brandished a knife and shouted: 'Drive, drive.'
"I screamed and I flung my door open. He probably realised I was going to be more trouble than I was worth and he decided to push me out of the car.
"The problem was I still had my seat belt on but I was out the car.
"I remember the car going back a bit and I thought: 'I'm going to get crushed under the wheels.'
"I was pleading with him to release the seat belt because If he drove off I was going to die."
The court was told that her attacker eventually released the seat belt and she fell out on to the road. The man then sped off in the car.
Yesterday Ms McGowan identified her attacker as 45-year-old James McKay.
McKay, of Craigpark Drive, Dennistoun, Glasgow, denies assaulting and attempting to abduct Miss McGowan and robbing her of a car, a laptop, handbag, coat, purse, a set of keys and a driving licence.
He has lodged a special defence of alibi.
Miss McGowan told the court that she still suffers flashbacks and now always double checks to make sure the central locking is on in her car.
Under cross-examination by advocate Gerry Carroll, Miss McGowan rejected a suggestion that she could be mistaken about her identification of McKay.
She told him: "There are no doubts in my mind."
Mr Carroll told the court that the car was tested for McKay's DNA and fingerprints with a negative result.
The trial, before Lord McEwan, continues.
The full article contains 390 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
