Murphy has admitted gouging out the eye of his former partner Natalie Farrell (27), but denies a charge of attempting to murder her during an incident at Dalfield Court on May 26.

Mr McKiddie said his ambulance was called to the multi at 7.12pm and arrived four minutes later.

In the foyer, near the concierge station, they found a woman who had obviously lost an eye.

An effort was made to find the eyeball by his colleague who went up to the eighth floor to begin a search. As he did that, the eye was found on the pavement outside the block.

He said it was put in a bag of saline solution and taken with the patient to Ninewells Hospital in the hope it could be re-attached. However he later discovered there was no hope of the eye being saved because of the way it had been removed.

He said Ms Farrell had scratches to face and neck, a swollen, possibly broken nose and “bruising” around her neck. In cross-examination, he accepted that what he saw on the neck could also be described as “reddening”.

Earlier, the court heard how a man gave police a running commentary as he watched a woman hanging on to veranda rails “for dear life”, as a man tried to throw her from the eighth-floor balcony of Dalfield Court.

Witness Noel Pittham (53) said that, if the woman had not succeeded in keeping her grip on the railings, “she would not be here today”.

He said at first his attention was attracted by screams. He looked out from his 13th floor window and saw a man and woman on the veranda of the eighth floor at Dalfield Court.

“A young girl was grabbing hold of the railings. A young guy was lying on her — on her back — twisting her head and trying to slap her.

“As I was watching, the young man tried to lift the woman and throw her from the balcony.”

Mr Pittham said he was watching TV when he first heard screaming, but dismissed it as coming from children outside.

“It kept going on, getting louder and louder, and that was when I looked out and there was a scuffle going on on the eighth floor of Dalfield Court.

He described the man trying to lift the woman with both hands as she held on to the balcony rail.

“At one point she had one leg over the balcony,” he continued. He said her leg, from knee to foot, was over the edge of the rail as the man continued to try to lift her.

“I didn’t think he was capable enough — he was either incapable through drink. She had her arms wrapped around the bars of the veranda as she was lifted up. It basically stopped her from going over.”

Cross-examined by defence counsel Iain Paterson, Mr Pittham denied that at any point the woman had lifted up one leg and the man took hold of it, or that the man was sitting on top of the railings at any point.

He also said he did not see the man on top of the girl pulling her hair or that he thought it was the man trying to hold on to the woman.

He was asked if he could be mistaken about his evidence that the man was trying to pick up the woman in an effort to throw her from the balcony.

Mr Pittham said he had described what he saw to the court and said he had watched throughout, while on the phone to police and gave them a running commentary.

He agreed with Mr Paterson’s suggestion the man looked unsteady and it was his opinion “he looked doped-up or drunk”.

In re-examination by advocate depute Iain McSporran he was asked to describe the way the woman was holding the balcony railing.

He said, “She grabbed them for dear life — if she had not I don’t think she would be here today.”

The trial continues.