A court heard the story of a bizzare incident in which a woman attacked her friend asleep in bed with an electric carving knife because “voices in her head were screaming to her to do it”.
Acacia Morgan, 51, immediately telephoned the police to report incident saying she had been trying to cut her friend’s throat and was frightened she might to might do something further.
She told officers that her friend Joanne Campbell had a towel round her neck to stop the bleeding. The police found Ms Campbell asleep in an upstairs bedroom, with an injury to her neck and surrounded by “large quantities of blood”.
Acacia Morgan was standing at the top of the stairs. She didn’t say anything then but told officers at Wick police station, “It was me..the voices told me to do it”.
Morgan appeared from custody at Wick Sheriff Court and admitted assaulting Ms Campbell with the carving knife to her injury and permanent disfigurement at their home at 29 High Street, Keiss, on December 13 last year.
David Barclay, prosecuting said that there had been no question of the pair having fallen out and added: “The accused said there were constant voices in her head and made mention of them driving her crazy”.
Ms Campbell listened from the public benches and at one point had her head in her hands as the strange tale unfolded of the night which started “unremarkably” with the pair watching television together.
Mr Barclay said that Ms Campbell remembered going to bed and falling asleep after taking her medication.
He continued: “She remembered waking up with a sore hand and neck and falling asleep again before being wakened by the police and taken to hospital.”
The accused was subsequently assessed as being fit to be interviewed and told officers that she had bought recently purchased the electric carving for normal purposes and kept it in the kitchen cupboard. She reiterated it was only because of the voices that she had used it on her friend. She had spent most of that day in her room “attempting to ignore the voices”.
Morgan said that she had gone to her room but had been unable to sleep because of Ms Campbell’s snoring in the adjacent room. The accused went on to tell officers that she recalled going downstairs, getting the carving knife and taking up back upstairs and plugging it in, in Ms Campbell’s room.
Mr Barclay said: “The accused then proceeded to cut down her friend’s neck, began to see all the blood and realised what she had done. She made sure there was a towel round her friend’s neck before phoning the police.”
Ms Campbell was examined in hospital and found to have a cut down the left hand side of her neck, which subsequently left a scar two-and-a-half-inches long. There was also minor cuts on her hand which said Mr Barclay would have been caused when she was trying to push the blade away.
The fiscal went on: “Ms Campbell told police that she was frightened of the accused and was having nightmares about her head being cut off.”
The case was continued for a background report until April 28 when the sheriff will consider psychiatric and psychological reports and hear a submission from solicitor Fiona MacDonald.
Morgan was remanded and as she was being led from the dock, Ms Campbell leaned forward in the public benches and said softly “Bye, Acacia”.
