A judge has praised the “bravery and self-sacrifice” of a 10-year-old boy who spent his dying moments trying to save another child after he was stabbed by his father.
Kane Morris, from Coupar Angus, died on November 11 last year after he was stabbed in his bed six times by his father Karl Morris, also known as Andrew.
An eight-year-old girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was stabbed in her lung and survived the attack.
Paramedics found that Kane, after being stabbed once in the chest and five times in the back, attempted to reach the room where the girl had been sleeping.
At the High Court in Glasgow, Morris, 38, admitted a charge of culpable homicide, reduced from murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility, accepting he fatally struck Kane several times with a knife.
He also admitted a charge of attempted murder against the girl on November 11 last year.
Lord Mulholland said: “I will not make any remarks today – with one exception.
“It seems to me Kane showed incredible bravery and self-sacrifice, having sustained these life-ending injuries. Rather than himself being his primary concern, his concern was for the girl.”
The court heard on Wednesday how Morris had barricaded the door of his Union Street flat with a microwave before stabbing his son and the girl.
He then stabbed himself several times in the chest before jumping from a third-floor window on to a parked car.
He then crawled out to the main road in a perceived attempt to end his life.
Prosecutor Alan Prentice QC told the court Morris had seen friends earlier in the evening who described him as “his usual self”.
However, in the early hours of November 11 he received a phone call which unsettled him and appeared to convince him the two children were in danger.
CCTV from a Shell garage across from the flat appeared to show him emerging from the building carrying a mobile phone at 1.52am, before he returned.
The same camera captured Morris crawling from the driveway leading into the flat around 15 minutes later. Neighbours reported hearing a child screaming.
Mr Prentice said: “In the minutes that followed (the phone call) the accused killed his son and caused near fatal injuries by repeatedly striking the girl on the body before he stabbed himself and jumped out of the third-floor window.
“The accused appears to have no memory of killing his child – the accused reports sitting down watching television and possibly falling asleep.”
However, outside of official interviews Morris was recorded on several occasions as admitting to officers that he had attacked the children and thrown himself from the building – on one occasion telling police: “Why did I not die? I jumped off a roof and stabbed myself in the same way I stabbed them.”
Mr Prentice added Morris had been under stress working as a farmhand at his family business in Coupar Angus, exacerbated following the death of his stepfather in an industrial accident there in May last year.
Defence advocate Stephen Hughes said he would await reports before delivering a mitigating statement.
Morris was detained at The State Hospital, Carstairs.
Lord Mulholland deferred sentence until August 12, pending psychiatric and criminal justice reports.
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