A naked knifeman who stabbed a police dog and tried to slash its handler after attacking a St Andrews University student with an axe told officers: “I should’ve chopped her up.”
Joshua Sutherland, 20, hit his former girlfriend on the head with the axe before appearing dressed just in boxer shorts at a golf course in the Fife town.
Sutherland was then spotted on the Fife coastal path armed with a knife and having shed his underwear.
Footage filmed from a police helicopter was shown to a judge as naked Sutherland brandished the knife and refused to drop the weapon before finally being apprehended.
Sutherland was taken to Dundee police station and put in a cell under observation before speaking about what had occurred that day, despite being reminded he was under caution.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard he said: “She’s broke my f***ing heart.
“You boys didn’t deserve that. I was scared. It was wrong. I just wanted to get away.
“I hope the dog’s okay, I really didn’t want to do any of what I’ve done today.
“I know I hurt your men. I know I hurt the dog, but f*** sake I know you have a job to do.
“I do regret all of it, today was out of character for me. I don’t do that kind of thing.”
Sutherland also said: “I hit her in the head.
“She should be f***ing dead.
“I hit her in the head with an axe once. I should’ve chopped her up.”
Axe attack
Advocate depute Adrian Stalker said Sutherland was in a relationship with his victim for about a year but it had recently ended when he sent her a text on October 23 2021, stating he was in Dundee and going to be sleeping rough.
The following morning she received a further text from him telling her that he was in St Andrews and was “freezing cold”.
She told him he could come to her house in Winram Place, St Andrews and he arrived five minutes later.
The prosecutor said: “He appeared to the complainer to be agitated and paranoid.
“He told the complainer that he had been taking amphetamine for two days.”
She left him to sleep in a bedroom and was sitting on the living room floor studying, with others in the room, when Sutherland walked in.
Mr Stalker said: “He walked towards the complainer as if he was going to go into the kitchen.
“He was holding a tomahawk-size axe behind his back.”
“Without warning he pulled the axe out from behind his back and struck the complainer once with it on the top of her head, with the blunt side of the axe head.
“He did not say anything, before or after this attack.”
The woman, bleeding from a head wound, fled to the garden and Sutherland followed, holding a knife.
She begged him to leave her alone, said Mr Stalker.
Sutherland returned to the house without uttering a word and she managed to get away and police were called.
She was treated at Ninewells for the head injury. No fracture was found.
Naked knifeman
Mr Stalker said: “Around 13.15 on October 24 police received a report that a male had been seen at the Torrance golf course, near the Fairmont Hotel, in St Andrews, wearing only boxer shorts.
“The description of this male matched the description of the person who had carried out the attack at Winram Place.”
Sutherland was seen, naked and armed with the knife, and police moved in.
He climbed a steep embankment towards the 17th green at the golf course, repeatedly refusing to drop the weapon.
The advocate depute said: “He brandished the knife in a threatening manner, shouting incoherently.”
A police dog handler deployed his dog on a lead to bite but Sutherland stabbed the dog in the chest, causing her to jump back.
He then struck the handler with the knife but hit his stab vest.
Sutherland fell backwards and tumbled down the embankment but got to his feet and ran over a footbridge, where he encountered further officers and was surrounded before he laid the weapon down.
Mr Stalker said police officers involved in the incident were uninjured.
The wound to the dog was cleaned by a vet and she made a full recovery.
The Courier previously told how Broughty Ferry lifeboat had been called to help search for “very, very violent” Sutherland on the coastline.
Plea to reduced charge
First offender Sutherland was originally charged with attempting to murder his ex-partner but on Tuesday, admitted a lesser charge of assault to her severe injury and danger of her life.
He also admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner at the coastal path and assaulting four police officers.
Sutherland was seen by psychiatrists following his arrest but was found not to be suffering from a mental illness.
Mr Stalker said he gave an account of his mental state at the time of the offences that was found to be broadly consistent with being intoxicated with street amphetamine.
The judge, Lord Armstrong, continued the case to May 16 at the High Court in Glasgow for the preparation of a background report ahead of sentencing.
Sutherland, who has been held at Polmont young offenders’ institution, was remanded in custody.
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