An Aberdeen dad accused of stabbing a youth in a row over the noise outside his flat yesterday insisted he was innocent.
Paul Morris told a court he did not even have a knife when the 16-year-old was allegedly stabbed.
The 24-year-old is on trial accused of wounding the boy with intent to cause grievous bodily harm on September 2 last year.
He denies the charge, as well as an alternative of unlawfully wounding the boy and making a threat with a bladed or pointed article which caused risk of harm.
The court has previously heard Morris leaned out the window twice to tell the boy and his friends to be quiet and go away. On the second occasion, the jury heard he had told them he come down with a sword – and then went downstairs holding a long knife.
Most of the group backed off – but one of the youths stood up to him and followed him back up to his flat, where Morris allegedly stabbed him, the jury heard.
But giving evidence at Gloucester Crown Court yesterday, Morris said he did not attack the boy – and that he had no idea how he became injured, or why he and his friends were claiming to have seen him with a large knife during the incident.
Morris told the jury he and his pregnant girlfriend were preparing for their move to Aberdeen the next day when the youths congregated outside the flat in Brockworth, Gloucester.
He said when he went downstairs, unarmed, to speak to the youths, the victim replied: “Do you know who I am?”
Morris, of Hazelhurst Terrace, Aberdeen, said: “I didn’t know who he was – I had never seen him before.
“I am 5ft 8in. He looked a lot bigger than me and I was scared.”
He said he went back into the building and up to the flat, followed by the youth.
He said when the youth came into the living room and saw Morris’s 38-week pregnant girlfriend, and another little boy, he turned and left.
“He didn’t have a cut in his shirt and there was no blood, nothing at all,” Morris said.
Prosecutor Julian Kesner asked him: “So between leaving you in that room and going outside to his friends he was injured?”
“Yes,” said Morris.
The jury heard Morris has criminal convictions, including seven for shoplifting and seven for burglary.
Morris told the court: “Every time I have been before the court before I have pleaded guilty. My whole criminal record is guilty, guilty, guilty at the first opportunity. This time I am actually not guilty.”
The trial continues.
