Man wanted to 'chop up' Outlander star who was stabbed as he left Edinburgh poetry venue for Hibs v Celtic cup tie

Tam Dean Burn was told by medics he had sustained a 3cm wound.

A star of hit TV show Outlander has told a court that he was stabbed as he left a poetry venue in Edinburgh to make his way to a football ground.

Tam Dean Burn said he felt "a thud" but did not realise he had been stabbed until he looked round and saw the blade being pulled out.

Mr Burn, 61, said he had given a reading at the Scottish Poetry Library in Crichton's Close and was heading to Easter Road. He was going to see Hibs play Celtic in a Scottish Cup tie.

Outlander star Tam Dean Burn

He agreed that the close led on to the city's High Street but added: "We didn't get as far as that.

"I noticed the person that ended up stabbing me. I recognised him, but I didn't know where from."

Mr Burn told the High Court in Edinburgh: "I just felt someone getting a hold of me and a bit of a thud.

"I didn't realise I had been stabbed until I looked round. I saw him and I saw the blade being pulled back out again."

He said there was a lot of shouting and the man was pulled off.

"He was saying I was a kiddie fiddler. I think he said 'he deserves to die'," he told the court.

Mr Burn made his way back to the poetry library and had realised that he was bleeding after the wound to his shoulder.

Mr Burn said the man was outside shouting and threatening him and Kevin Williamson.

"It was something like 'they two are going to die, get them out here'. Something along those lines," he said.

'3 centimetres deep'

Emergency services arrived and he was taken to an ambulance before going to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary for treatment.

Mr Burn said he was released the same day and the injury has healed, but left him with a scar.

He told the court: "They told me it was three centimetres deep."

Mr Burn said he later realised he had met the man in 1995. He said: "He wanted to be an actor. We were doing a play at the Edinburgh Festival that year."

He was shown a picture taken through glass doors at the poetry library and said: "That Jonathon Wilson. That's who stabbed me."

Giving evidence, Mr Williamson, 58, told the court that he left the Scottish Poetry Library with Mr Burn when a man put his arm around the actor's neck.

Mr Williamson, who described himself as being self employed, said the man struck Mr Burn "in the neck area".

Mr Williamson said Mr Burn managed to get back into the library. The court heard that the man then tried to get into the library and was carrying a knife.

He added: "I was going a bit nuts at him. He was shouting something about a paedophile and you ruined my life."

Mr Williamson said he took a photograph of the male and picked up a Scottish Poetry Library sign. He said he used the sign to keep the man from gaining entry to the building.

He added: "I went a bit radge. I wasn't thinking straight. I wanted to attack him."

Police seized 'three knives and an axe'

Writer Kieran Hurley,33, told the court that he saw a man trying to enter to the library. He had been present at the event held earlier in the afternoon there.

Mr Hurley, whose award winning Book Beats was made into a film starring Breaking Bad actor Laura Fraser, said the male wasn't trying to force his way into the building.

Mr Hurley said: "He wasn't pushing or shoving his way in. He was standing in the doorway and addressing the whole room.

"He said something like wanting to protect us or something like that."

PC Calum Higginbotham,31, was one of the police officers who attended the scene. He said that officers seized three knives and an axe from the man who allegedly attacked Burn.

He told the court that he spoke to the male.

PC Higginbotham added: "He did state it was him. He said he was planning to chop him up. He had an axe in his bag and he said he stabbed him in the neck."

Wilson, 43, who is currently detained at the psychiatric State Hospital at Carstairs, was charged with assaulting Mr Burn on March 2 this year to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement and to the danger of his life and attempting to murder him.

Wilson has pled not guilty and lodged a special defence maintaining that at the time he was unable because of a mental disorder to appreciate the nature or wrongfulness of the conduct.

A judge is carrying out an examination of the facts in the case in the absence of Wilson. Lord Burns, who is sitting without a jury, is hearing evidence. The hearing continues.