Dunfermline man denies attempted murder

Self-confessed alcoholic Andrew Gibson insisted he wasn’t responsible for inflicting the potentially life-threatening injury on Pauline Wilkes after she confronted him about his excessive drinking.

In fact, he accused the 43-year-old woman of attacking him because he had threatened to end their year-long relationship.

Giving evidence in his own defence the 51-year-old unemployed engineer, of Blackburn Avenue, admitted he’d had an issue with alcohol addiction for about 25 years.

He told the High Court at Livingston that he and Miss Wilkes had shared a bottle of vodka and binge watched episodes of Game of Thrones all night before the alleged murder bid.

He explained: “We normally stayed up until six or seven in the morning then went to the bedroom.

“I’m a bit of an insomniac so I got up early, just a couple of hours after, and went through to the livingroom.

“I was just watching television. Pauline came through then she started hitting me.”

He said Miss Wilkes was angry because she had found a plastic juice bottle full of vodka next to him.

Gibson commented: “She obviously didn’t want to see alcohol there at that time in the morning.

“I said: ‘That’s it. I’ve had enough. I’m leaving you.’

“She started fighting me then she said: ‘You can’t go.’

“She went into the kitchen and got a knife and said: ‘I’m going to kill myself.’

“She came back through and she put a knife in her neck. I was just in shock."

He went on: “I don’t really remember what happened next.

“She went away and I was just, like I say, in total shock.

“You don’t often see someone putting a knife in their neck.”

He said he followed Miss Wilkes downstairs out of her flat to try and help her.

He said: “I picked up the knife in the livingroom so that she didn’t have it.

“I went outside and she was lying outside at her neighbour’s house.

“I said: ‘I’ll help. I’m a qualified first aider.’

“I was told: ‘No, stay away, stay away’ by her neighbour.”

Gibson admitted that the neighbour, one of the witnesses in the case, had accused him of stabbing Miss Wilkes.

He added: “I was arrested because I was accused of stabbing somebody.”

His defence counsel Michael Anderson asked him: “And had you?”

He replied: “No.”

Mr Anderson went on: “You heard a police officer say you admitted stabbing Pauline Wilkes?”

Gibson answered: “I don’t remember saying that. As I say I was still in shock. The whole thing’s just crazy.”

Under cross examination by advocate depute David Dickson, Gibson said he recognised the bloodstained paring knife used in the attack.

However, he denied taking the weapon from the kitchen of her home.

Given evidence heard the previous day that blood had been “spurting” from Miss Wilkes' neck before she collapsed, Mr Dickson suggested: “Common sense says that if somebody is stabbed in the neck there’d be a lot of blood.”

Gibson said: “I don’t remember seeing a lot of blood. I don’t remember there being that much blood.”

Mr Dickson asked: “Surely your first instinct would be to pick up your mobile phone and dial 999 and call for an ambulance?”

Gibson replied: “No. I’m thinking: ‘I’m going to go and help her. I’m not going to wait 10 minutes for a call to answer’.”

The advocate depute went on: “She’s heading down the stairs and you say the first thing that comes into your head is that she might come back and get the knife again?”

He answered: “She was a very aggressive, violent woman and I didn’t want her having that knife in her hand.”

Mr Dickson said: “You accepted that she was heading out of the building. I suggest she was doing that because she was trying to get away from you.”

Gibson answered: “I don’t know what she was doing.”

Mr Dickson persisted: “You had the knife. You’d sat down beside her on the sofa. You cut her neck.

“She was fearful, she pushed your hand away. That explains how you were in possession of the knife when you came out of the building.”

“That didn’t happen,” he replied.

Gibson denies attempted murder. He is charged with assaulting Ms Wilkes to her severe injury and danger of life at her then home in Leishman Drive on December 9 2020.

The trial, before Lord Richardson, continues.