Pair jailed for festival stabbing

Mark Morrison was stabbed 11 times as he tried to help friends

Two men who stabbed a festival-goer at T in the Park have been jailed for nine years each.

Mark Morrison, 23, was knifed 11 times after confronting the men who had assaulted his female friends at the music event in Kinross-shire last July.

Robert Kidd, 25, from Barrhead, and John Tiffoney, also 25, from Glasgow, had both denied attacking Mr Morrison.

When police came to arrest Kidd, there was a six-hour stand-off as he threatened them with a Samurai sword.

Both men have criminal records for serious assault and Tiffoney has a previous culpable homicide conviction.

Mr Morrison confronted the pair after they spat on, punched and pushed three of his female friends.

He was then punched and stabbed with a camping knife, receiving six stab wounds on his back, three on his right side, one on the left side of his mouth and one on the right side of his head.

Mr Morrison was taken to the festival medical tent where a drain was inserted in an emergency procedure as one of the stab wounds had punctured his lung.

They did not expect that one of their number would be stabbed in the back and side with a knife Lord Woolman

Jurors at the High Court in Dunfermline heard that if it had not been for the paramedics' swift intervention, Mr Morrison could have died.

After a six day trial, they took three-and-a-half hours to find Kidd and Tiffoney guilty of attempting to murder him.

They were also found guilty of assaulting the three women.

As the verdicts were announced, Kidd turned to grin at relatives on the public benches. Tiffoney showed no emotion.

Judge Lord Woolman told them they had been found guilty of "a disgraceful series of crimes".

He said: "You assaulted three females and then you attempted to murder the man who went to their aid.

"The victims went to the T in the Park festival to have a good time. They went with friends to listen to live music and to enjoy themselves.

"They did not go to become involved in mindless assaults, and they did not expect that one of their number would be stabbed in the back and side with a knife."

Samurai siege

The incident happened near midnight on 13 July last year.

A month later, when Strathclyde Police went to arrest Kidd for the crime, he drew a Samauri sword, threatened to stab four police officers, and climbed onto the roof of his home in Grampian Way, Barrhead, East Renfrewshire, resulting in a six-hour stand-off.

Streets had to be cordoned off during the siege, which involved 25 officers and used up more than 150 man-hours of police time.

In addition to the T in the Park charges, jurors found Kidd guilty of committing a breach of the peace in relation to the stand-off.

Lord Woolman sentenced Kidd to a further six months imprisonment for the breach of the peace, to be served consecutively with the nine years.

Ch Supt Craig Suttie of Tayside Police welcomed the verdicts and commended the bravery of Mr Morrision.

He said: " This was a despicable incident. It was also an unprecedented one as T in the Park is an event that has an excellent safety record stretching back more than a decade."