Man cleared of murder over mourner death in Aberdeen

A man jailed for 12 years for driving into a funeral mourner in Aberdeen has been cleared of murdering the victim after he later died.

Michael Scott, 37, was jailed in 2019 for attempted murder after 59-year-old Graeme Hardie was left severely brain damaged.

Mr Hardie subsequently died in 2020.

A new prosecution was brought against Scott, but he was found not guilty of murder by a majority verdict at the High Court in Edinburgh.

The incident happened outside a pub in Bucksburn in July 2018.

Mr Hardie, a grandfather, had been at the Staging Post pub after attending his brother's funeral earlier in the day.

Scott, from Sunderland, had been watching an England game and an argument broke out about football.

Outside, he got into his Skoda and revved his engine before driving at Mr Hardie.

In the new prosecution, the court heard that the cause of his death was established as bronchopneumonia as a complication of a traumatic brain injury.