Graeme Hardie

Graeme Hardie was run over in 2018 and later died in 2020.

Before he died a man was convicted of his attempted murder. However, following his death the man was found not guilty of his murder. He was found not guilty by a majority verdict.

The man had struck him with a Skoda Octavia car outside the Staging Post pub in Bucksburn, Aberdeen, on 11 June 2018. He later died on 5 March 2020 at the Chaseley Trust home in Eastbourne from bronchopneumonia as a complication of a traumatic brain injury.

Graeme Hardie had suffered severe brain damage in the incident.

Following the incident in 2018 the man was tried for attempted murder and convicted in 2019 and sentenced to 12 years. When the judge sentenced him he said, 'You were convicted by the jury of the attempted murder of Graeme Hardie, a man with whom you had an argument in a pub on the occasion of his late brother's funeral reception. You deliberately drove your car at him in order to cause him injury and you did cause the most appalling injuries which have effectively ruined his life. You have shown no remorse for what you did to him. A conviction for attempted murder particularly where, as here, the crime resulted in catastrophic injury must attract a lengthy sentence'.

Graeme Hardie had required round-the-clock care following the incident and had been being cared for at the specialist Chaseley Trust home.

The man was tried at the High Court in Edinburgh but found not guilty.

The charge against him was 'that on July 11 in 2018 at Old Meldrum Road he assaulted and murdered Hardie and drove a car at him, striking him with the vehicle, causing him to be thrown into the air and striking his head and body on the car and ground resulting in him being so severely injured that he died on March 5 2020 at Eastbourne District General Hospital, in Sussex'.

Relatives of Graeme Hardie said that they were fairly confident that the man would be convicted of murder, stating that most of the witnesses were the same and the Crown case was the same. However, they were told that the defence lawyer was the best in Scotland and it was said that because of that, the man was acquitted.

It was noted that proving murder was difficult, but that the judge had also given the jury the option of culpable homicide, which Graeme Hardie's family stated they thought would be a sure thing if there had been any issue with the murder charge, but that they were devastated when the jury returned a not guilty verdict on both charges.

A family member said, 'While we weren’t sure he’d get found guilty of murder, we definitely thought we’d get at least culpable homicide. The last thing we expected was not guilty. I still can’t quite believe it now. I’m playing it back and playing it back in my head and it’s just unbelievable really'.

Graeme Hardie had been attending the Staging Post pub after attending his brother's funeral earlier in the day. It was heard that the man charged had been watching the England v Croatia World Cup match and that an argument broke out and he was asked to leave the pub. He was said then to have got in his car and started to rev his engine and then driven at Graeme Hardie.

Graeme Hardie was left unconscious and unresponsive on the pavement, lying on his back.

It was noted that the man had also previously been asked to leave the Spider's Web bar in Dyce where he had also been antagonising customers. The manager of the Spider's Web said that the man had accused either himself, or other people, of being racist because he came from England.

The manager of the Staging Post said that the man had become louder and louder and so was asked to leave.

However, whilst it was agreed that Graeme Hardie died from bronchopneumonia as a complication of a traumatic brain injury due to a road traffic collision in which he was a pedestrian, the defence asked the jury to acquit the man on the ground that it was Graeme Hardie that had come into contact with the car, noting that there had been a dent and mark on that was consistent with a foot having come into contact with it.

It was then heard that the man had driven off, but soon after crashed his car on the A497 nearby. When he was tested he was found to have been over the drink drive limit during a roadside test.

The prosecution claimed that the man had driven straight at Graeme Hardie without trying to avoid him.

However, the man was acquitted.

Graeme Hardie had had three children and five grandchildren.