Stabbing accused claims injury was an accident
A MAN accused of stabbing one of his best friends in the neck told a jury it was an accident.
Michael Cope told the trial at Tain Sheriff Court his friend Brian O’Donnell had been holding the knife when he was arguing with his girlfriend in the kitchen of a house in Invergordon.
Cope (47), a prisoner at Inverness, said he came into the kitchen and Mr O’Donnell and his girlfriend at the time, Leanne Christie, were having a heated argument.
He said Mr O’Donnell put the knife down on to a draining board and he (Cope) picked it up to put it away.
Cope said he had the knife in his hand and O'Donnell told him it was nothing to do with him.
"He just went for me. It was an accident," said Cope.
Asked by his own solicitor Graham Mann if he struck him in the face, Cope replied, “No.”
“How did he become injured?” asked Mr Mann.
“He went for me. His hands went up. It was not intentional.”
Cope was giving evidence at the second day of his re-trial.
An earlier trial was stopped by Sheriff David Sutherland for legal reasons.
Mr O’Donnell told the jury that he had been grieving on the first anniversary of the death of his dog while in the kitchen of a friend’s house when Cope came in.
He said Cope told him to get over it and he reacted by swearing at him.
Mr O'Donnell said Cope grabbed the knife from the draining board of the sink and stabbed him in the cheek.
Yesterday Michael Rogers, a head and neck surgeon at Raigmore Hospital who treated Mr O’Donnell, said the knife wound on the neck was “potentially lethal” and Mr O’Donnell had an “extremely lucky outcome.”
Cope said in his evidence he had known Mr O’Donnell since he was 14 but they were no longer friends. He said on the day of the incident nothing had been said about the death of Mr O’Donnell’s dog.
Cope denies on March 9 at 30 Kilmuir Place, Invergordon, assaulting Mr O’Donnell by striking him with a knife to the face to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement and to the danger of his life.
A warrant had to be issued for Mr O’Donnell’s former girlfriend Ms Christie who failed to turn up as a witness on Wednesday.
She appeared in the witness box on Thursday and claimed the stabbing had been an accident.
Depute fiscal Roderick Urquhart told her that in a statement taken by police minutes after the incident she told them that “he (Cope) stabbed Brian on the face”.
“Was that the truth?” asked the fiscal.
“Yes,” she replied.
The court will hear final submissions today (Friday August 12) and the jury will retire to consider its verdict.