Man jailed for stabbing teen causes cell lock-down

An Aberdeen man who stabbed a teenager in the chest was jailed for 18 months yesterday – and immediately injured himself butting a wall in the cells below Gloucester Crown Court.

Paramedics were called to treat Paul Morris and the rest of the day's proceedings had to be postponed because custody guards locked down the cell block.

Morris, formerly of Brockworth, Gloucester, but now of Hazelhurst Terrace, Aberdeen, was convicted of threatening his 16year-old victim with a knife and unlawfully wounding him.

He was told by Judge Michael Harington yesterday that the offences were too serious for anything other than an immediate jail term.

The 24-year-old’s agent, solicitor Steve Young, had asked the judge to consider a suspended sentence in view of the provocation he received when he was chased into his former home by the youth.

Mr Young also asked the court to bear in mind that Morris has a young baby and his partner is pregnant.

The solicitor said Morris, who suffers from anxiety, had self-harmed and attempted suicide in the past.

Morris suffered a gash to his forehead and the top of his nose when he butted the wall.

The court heard during his trial that he and his pregnant fiancee, Kirsty Kumar, were staying with friends in a flat in Vicarage Court, Brockworth. They were due to move the following day to Aberdeen to live with Morris's father.

Prosecutor Julian Kesner said a group of noisy youths gathered outside the flat and Morris twice leaned out of the window to tell them to be quiet and go away. When they ignored him he threatened to go downstairs with a sword.

Moments later Morris appeared in the street with a long knife and waved it around at the youths.

All the youths except the victim backed away.

The victim then followed Morris upstairs into his flat, and when he reached a small hallway he was stabbed in the chest.

The court heard yesterday that the stabbing victim had also been prosecuted for unlawfully wounding another man in the flat, who he punched in the face, breaking a jaw.

Mr Young said Morris had been adopted at birth but had traced his real father last year to Aberdeen and now had a very close relationship with him.

Judge Harington told Morris: “It seems to me that when a knife is used to threaten or injure someone a custodial sentence is inevitable.”