Murder trial hears dead man suffered 100 injuries

A man killed after Hogmanay celebrations in Kirkcaldy suffered over 100 injuries, 10 of them stab wounds.

At the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday criminal pathologist Dr Kerryann Shearer said an ornamental knife was still in place when she examined the body of Alexander Forbes, 25. It had punctured the lungs and gone into the spine.

The cause of death was blood loss from a wound to the heart.

Adrian Hynd, 51, of Victoria Road, Kirkcaldy, denies murdering Mr Forbes on January 2 by seizing him by the neck, repeatedly punching him on the head and repeatedly striking him with a knife on the head and body. Hynd has lodged a plea of self-defence.

The court heard the men met on Hogmanay at a bar in Kirkcaldy and went back to Hynd’s house.

Forbes was stabbed on the abdomen, buttocks, lower back and thighs and there were 10 incise wounds on his face, head and neck.

Defence QC, Mark Stewart, put it to Dr Shearer that if someone was engaged in a struggle and sought to defend themselves, that could lead to injuries.

She agreed. She also agreed that some of the incise injuries could have come from the sharp points on the knife, if two people were rolling about on the floor.

Hynd told police he had been hit on the head with a bottle and had grabbed the knife blade when being attacked by it. The trial continues.