A man accused of an Inverness knife assault says he had gone to his alleged victim’s home to shake the man’s hand – and was himself attacked with a knife and a hatchet.
Jurors in the trial of David Hobbs, 43, were shown video footage of his interview with police officers following the incident in the Merkinch area of the city on October 5 2019.
Hobbs is standing trial at Inverness Sheriff Court, where he denies assaulting Brian Skillin to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement
During the interview footage, Hobbs claims it was Mr Skillin who attacked him and not the other way around.
Hobbs told the officers that he had been “scared for my life” after receiving threats from Mr Skillin.
However, he said a phone call on the morning of the incident led him to believe that a truce was in the offing and had gone around to Mr Skillin’s house to “shake his hand.”
Hobbs tells officers it was Mr Skillin who had the knife and a hatchet and who launched an attack on him.
“He was coming out intentionally to do me,” he said.
Later he described Mr Skillin as coming out of the door “like a raging bull”.
In the interview, Hobbs, of Mossvale Road Glasgow, said had been forced to defend himself, grabbing the blade of the knife with one hand, causing a cut to his finger, while attempting to block a hatchet blow with the other.
‘I have seen that knife before’
When officers showed Hobbs the knife recovered from Mr Skillin’s home following the incident in Anderson Street, Inverness, he told them: “I have seen that knife before, he has showed me it.
“That is what he had in his hand. That is what he tried to stab me with, that is what ripped my hand.”
When Hobbs was asked about stab wounds that Mr Skillin received treatment for at Raigmore Hospital, he replied: “He’s had somebody do it for him or he has done it himself.”
Yesterday, Mr Skillin gave his version of events to the jury.
He said the dog attacked his leg and he used a hatchet to fight it off.
Mr Skillin said while he was preoccupied with the dog Hobbs attacked, stabbing him in the arm and back with what he described as a “12-inch Gurkha knife” with a “curved blade”.
Argument no excuse for stabbing
In her closing speech, fiscal depute Martina Eastwood told the jury Mr Skillin’s wounds, which were five to 10 centimetres deep, “are consistent with what Mr Skillin told you”.
She also directed them to the agreed forensic evidence that shows Mr Skillin’s blood on the blade of the knife and Hobbs’ DNA on the handle.
She told the jurors: “An argument is not an excuse to stab someone.”
Defence solicitor Pauline Chapman used her closing speech to remind jurors that evidence also showed a third person’s DNA on the knife.
She also took the opportunity to explain the legal definition of assault, telling the jury it is “an attack carried out on another person with evil intent”.
“If there is no evil intent there is no assault,” she added.
Sheriff Sara Matheson is expected to deliver her charge to the jury tomorrow morning, after which their deliberations can begin.
