A Fife man accused of attempted murder after night binge-watching Game of Thrones claimed his ex-partner stabbed herself in the neck during a domestic row.
Self-confessed alcoholic Andrew Gibson insisted he was not responsible for inflicting the potentially life-threatening injury on Pauline Wilkes after she confronted him about his excessive drinking.
He accused the 43-year-old woman of aggressively attacking him because he had threatened to end their year-long relationship.
Giving evidence in his own defence, the 51-year-old unemployed engineer admitted he had had an issue with alcohol addiction for about 25 years.
Games of Thrones binge
He told the High Court at Livingston 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 living room.
“I was just watching television. Pauline came through then she started hitting me.”
He said Miss Wilkes was obviously angry with him because she had found a plastic juice bottle full of vodka next to him.
“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’.”
He said she got a knife from the kitchen and stabbed herself in the neck.
Claims accused tried to help
Gibson said: “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 to help her.
He said: “I picked up the knife in the living room 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 the lady that was her neighbour.”
The trial heard on Thursday neighbour Amanda McKenzie thought Gibson had inflicted the wound.
Miss Wilkes was rushed to Edinburgh for surgery and it was found the knife had missed her major blood vessels.
Denies charge
Gibson, 51, of Blackburn Drive, Dunfermline, denies attempted murder.
He is charged with assaulting Pauline 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.
