A NEILSTON man allegedly killed by a taxi driver was found dying on a road, a murder trial has heard.

The High Court in Glasgow heard that amateur footballer Craig Kearney was bleeding and appeared to be choking when Josh Potter spotted him.

Jurors heard how mercy crews tried for more than 20 minutes to save 24-year-old Mr Kearney but he never recovered.

Derek McClinton is on trial charged with murdering Mr Kearney in the early hours of March 5, 2017, in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire.

Prosecutors claim 51-year-old cabbie McClinton struck him with his vehicle before running over his head and body.

Mr Potter, 30, told how he was returning home with his wife when they spotted a body in the road.

The heating engineer said: “My wife noticed him first...he appeared to be lying on the middle of the road on his back.”

The witness immediately called 999 and tried to get something to stem the blood.

Mr Potter said: “He was bleeding from behind his head, from what I could see.”

He told prosecutor Liam Ewing QC there were no obvious injuries but added: “His eyes and mouth were open, it was like he was choking on blood or fluid in his mouth.”

Mr Potter said he pinched the man’s hand but “got nothing back at all.”

Paramedic Anthony Lithgoe later told the trial how there appeared to be “confusion” when he arrived at the scene.

He said: “There was a lot of public sort of milling about. We cleared everyone.

“We ascertained that he [Mr Kearney] was effectively dead. There was no cardiac output.”

Mr Lithgoe said “advanced life support” took place in the street for 20 minutes but it had been “unsuccessful.”

Earlier, the trial heard from Mr Kearney’s girlfriend Olivia Geraghty, who said the pair had been out with friends in Glasgow city centre to celebrate her birthday.

The 28-year-old customer services manager stated they got a taxi to East Kilbride after 1am.

Mr Ewing asked what had happened on the journey.

She replied: “I remember me and my friends talking in the back and Craig being quite cheeky to the driver.

“I remember him saying ‘specky,’ which I consider to be quite cheeky.”

Mr Ewing then questioned if the driver wore glasses and the witness replied: “Yes, the driver wore glasses.”

McClinton, of East Kilbride, also faces a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The includes a claim he did “continue in the course of [his] employment as a private hire taxi driver” in the car afterwards.

This is said to have allowed “video footage” taken by a device in the vehicle to be erased.

The charge also states McClinton washed the car in “an attempt to destroy evidence.”

He denies the allegations and the trial, before judge Lord Armstrong, continues.