Dad admits killing son and trying to murder girl in Coupar Angus

A dad today admitted killing his 10-year-old son and causing near fatal injuries to an eight-year-old girl as they slept.

The High Court in Glasgow heard that after stabbing the children Karl Morris, 38, knifed himself five times and jumped out a third floor window.

The stabbings took place in the early hours on November 11, last year, at a flat in Coupar Angus.

Morris was originally charged with murdering his son Kane, a pupil at Coupar Angus primary school, but prosecutor Alex Prentice QC accepted a reduced plea to culpable homicide on the basis of diminished responsibility.

He also admitted attempting to murder the young girl.

When questioned by detectives Morris told them: 'I was taking them to a better place away from evil.”

Later he said: “I've done a horrible thing.”

Morris is currently in the State Hospital under a treatment order and will be sentenced in August.

Mr Prentice told the court that Kane was stabbed six times – once in the chest and five times in the back.

Brave Kane – despite his fatal injuries – went towards the young girl's bedroom to try to help her before collapsing.

Yesterday, judge Lord Mulholland told Morris: “You pleaded guilty to horrific actions.”

He added: “ It seems to me that Kane showed incredible bravery and self sacrifice rather than thinking of himself his concern was for the eight-year-old girl. For a 10-year-old boy to do that shows incredible bravery.”

Lord Mulholland went on: “The eight-year-old girl showed incredible bravery as well.”

Members of Kane's family sitting in the public gallery of the court sobbed and Morris was also crying in the dock as the facts were read out.

Mr Prentice said: “In the course of a meeting with psychiatrists the accused stated that he acted to protect himself and his family from some impending, but otherwise unspecified, mortal danger.”

Morris, who was in the Army for five years, worked as a farm hand in the family business in Coupar Angus, Perthshire.

The court heard that on November 11, last year, friends visited Morris and left him watching football and drinking a cup of tea at shortly after midnight.

Around 1.52am Morris' niece Iona McPherson made a one-minute drunken call to him and put the phone on loudspeaker.

Mr Prentice told the court: “In the minutes that followed, the accused killed his 10-year-old son, caused near fatal injuries to an eight-year-old girl and then stabbed himself before jumping out a third floor window.

“The accused claims to have no memory of killing one child and attempting to murder another.

“However, he said he thought he heard his niece Iona cackling on the phone and said subsequent events were blurry.

“As a result of this call he said he acted to protect himself and his family from some impending mortal danger.”

The court heard that paramedics rushed to treat Morris as he lay injured in the street and he told them he had stabbed two children.

Efforts to get to the children were hampered because Morris had barricaded the front door.

When they got in they found the girl who had stab wounds to her abdomen and limbs.

Kane was lying collapsed outside the bedroom she had been sleeping in.

He was gravely injured and died at 3.24am. The girl suffered a collapsed lung and spent four weeks in hospital.

Morris had five stab wounds, a fractured left femur, a fracture of his pelvis and rib injuries which were all self-inflicted.

Defence counsel Stephen Hughes, representing Morris, will give his plea in mitigation when the case next calls.

The court heard that Morris was struggling to cope following the death of the step-father in an industrial accident of the farm in May 2018.