Murder Trial: Victim '˜knifed through the heart and spine'

Victoria Road was cordoned off after the incident in January.

At the High Court in Edinburgh today, Criminal Pathologist, Dr Kerryann Shearer, told the court that when she examined the body of 25-year old Alexander Forbes, an ornamental knife, which had punctured the lungs and gone into the spine, was still in place. The cause of death, however, was blood loss from a wound into the heart.

Fifty-one year old Adrian Hynd 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 denies the charge and has lodged a plea of self-defence.

The court heard previously that the men had met on Hogmanay at the Windsor bar and gone back to Hynd’s house. Forensic Toxicologist, Joanna Wylie, told the jury that Forbes had seven times more than the drink-drive limit for alcohol in his blood and cocaine. That, she said, could lead to increased aggression.

Forbes’ was also stabbed on the abdomen, buttocks, lower back and thighs and there were ten incise wounds on his face, head and neck, some superficial.

Defence QC, Mark Stewart, put it to Dr Shearer that if someone was engaged in a struggle with another person 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 ornamental knife, if two people were rolling about on the floor.

Hynd, said, Mr Stewart had told police he had been hit on the head with a bottle and that he had grabbed the blade of the knife when being attacked by it.

The Crown case has closed and the trial will resume of Tuesday.