Police are investigating the violent death of a man at a flat branded a drug den by neighbours.
It’s believed Colin Skilbeck, 41, was stabbed. Paramedics rushed to the tenement flat in Edinburgh to try to save him on Sunday night but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Two men and a woman have been detained over his death.
Neighbours in the close in Gibson Terrace, Fountainbridge, told of noisy, chaotic parties in the flat. And one said: “It’s got a lot worse in the last week, with fighting and screaming.
“On Sunday night I heard a woman screaming, then a man shouting: ‘I’ll f****** stab you!’
“Then a woman and a man ran away from the flat.”
The source said there had been a constant stream of visitors to the flat in recent months.
“It’s been non-stop noise,” they added. “This has been an ongoing issue for about a year.
“There’s been complaints made about drug use and dealing. People are going there to use heroin. Just recently they put Capital FM on and had an all-night rave.
“Needles have been left in the stairwell, people urinate and defecate in the stairs. Sometimes you would find people just collapsed there.”
Local residents have complained repeatedly about drug dealing, discarded needles and disturbances in the area between Gibson Terrace and Yeaman Place. Police launched a special operation last September to try to tackle the problems.
Skilbeck was under a drug treatment and testing order imposed last October at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
The order was issued after he was convicted of acting in an aggressive manner and shouting and swearing at his partner Pauline Stewart, in the Gorgie area of the city in September.
Skilbeck was also convicted of assaulting Pauline last July in Saughton, Edinburgh. He struggled with her and left
her injured and shouted, swore and made threats.
The court also heard that while being taken to Livingston police station on the day of the July incident, Skilbeck made violent threats and acted aggressively in a police vehicle.
A sheriff gave him a 15-month testing order. He was due back in court on April 12 for a check on his progress.
At the time of Skilbeck’s court appearance, his address was given as the Little France tower block in the Moredun area of Edinburgh.
But it’s understood he was originally from Bonnyrigg, and his family in the Midlothian town were struggling yesterday to come to terms with his loss.
His sister Donna, 43, and brother Stuart, 37, were at their 65-year-old mum Lena’s home in the town. They did not want to comment on the tragedy.
Skilbeck’s sister-in-law Claire, 37, said: “We can’t really say anything at the moment because we don’t know anything about what has happened.”
Police continued to work at Gibson Terrace.
Yesterday afternoon, uniformed officers taped off a section of the street next to the Union Canal and sealed communal bins to be examined.
Other officers carried out door-to-door inquiries, and only people living in the close were allowed into the building.
Forensics experts examined the scene. Police remained on guard last night at the building.
Police Scotland appealed for information and said: “Police in Edinburgh have detained a man and two women as part of an ongoing investigation into the death of a 41-year-old man in Gibson Terrace on Sunday.”