21-year-old appears in court following student's death

A man has appeared in a Scottish court charged with assaulting a student from Northern Ireland who later died after being found at a nearby roadside.

Liam Armstrong, 21, whose address was not given, appeared in private and on petition from custody at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Monday.

He faces three charges of assault and made no plea or declaration to one charge of assault to severe injury and danger of life and two charges of assault and danger of life.

He was committed for further examination and released on bail.

Andrew Couser, who was studying at university in Edinburgh, was discovered with serious head injuries on Western Approach Road on Tuesday morning and taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary where he later died from his injuries.

The victim had been out socialising with friends when he became involved in a fight with several youths at around 3am.

Mr Couser, from Donaghadee, is understood to have broken away from the fracas near Thomson's bar and gone to a nearby baker's shop where he refused medical attention and asked for a pie.

He was later discovered by a motorist on the Western Approach Road, lying under a bridge. He died a short time later in hospital.

Meanwhile in Belfast, three men are due to appear in court charged with attempted murder following the stabbing of a 14-year-old boy at the weekend.

A 22-year-old man and two others aged 18 will appear at Belfast Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.

The 22-year-old man also faces charges of aggravated burglary, making threats to kill and possesing an offensive weapon.

The victim, who is now in a stable condition, was walking through Laburnum playing fields in east Belfast early on Saturday when he was set upon by a number of men and stabbed several times before escaping from his attackers.

Found a short time later by police at the nearby Picardy Avenue, the teenager was rushed to hospital where he underwent emergency surgery for a serious stab wound to the abdomen.

(MB/SP)