Woman thought she was going to die as blood spurted from her neck

In earlier evidence, the attempted murder trial against Andrew Gibson heard Pauline Wilkes state she was stabbed in the neck after an all-night drinking session.

She said Gibson attacked her after she criticised him for drinking alcohol during the day, “sneaking it” and “putting it in juice bottles when there was no need”.

Pauline, 43, said the disagreement was sparked by her finding one of his juice bottles in the living room of her flat in Dunfermline as they prepared to go to bed at 8am.

She said Gibson, who had been in a relationship with her for just over a year, was “being a bit cheeky about it” so she threw the contents of the bottle on top of him.

Ms Wilkes told the High Court in Livingston: “He put his arm round me. I thought he was giving me a cuddle.

“I didn’t say anything to him and then he’s put the knife in my neck.

“(I felt) nothing really, just a bit of pressure. I didn’t realise he’d actually put a knife in my neck.

“I seen the blood spurting. I thought I was going to die.”

Ms Wilkes said she fled to a neighbour’s house to get help but passed out and fell to the ground.

She said: “I think he must have been there because I heard him saying to a neighbour, ‘I stabbed her’.”

Neighbour Amanda Mckenzie, 44, said she went to Ms Wilkes’ aid after a man burst into her house saying someone had been stabbed.

She said: “Pauline was covered in blood on the ground at her neighbour’s door.

“I actually thought she was dead. (Blood was) spurting out of her neck.

“I screamed for help and towels and we tried to stop the bleeding.”

Ms Wilkes was rushed to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary as a “code red trauma”, used when there is a high risk the patient could bleed to death or die from their injuries.

Professor Michael Gillies, an intensive care consultant, said: “The knife had not punctured any of the great vessels such as the carotid artery or jugular vein, for example.

“If those are cut they can result in fatal bleeding.”

Pauline Wilkes.