Man who stabbed Outlander star in neck as he left Edinburgh poetry venue to be kept in Carstairs psychiatric hospital

A psychiatrist says the attacker will likely only be released "many years down the line."

The man who attempted to murder a star of hit TV show Outlander because he believes he is part of a celebrity paedophile ring, will be kept in a psychiatric hospital at Carstairs.

Jonathan Wilson,43, stabbed Tam Dean Burn on the neck with a knife as he left a poetry venue in Edinburgh.

Actor Tam Dean Burn, who has starred in Outlander, was stabbed in March 2019.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard how the horrifying attack was witnessed by people who had seen Mr Burn perform.

Wilson claimed he was hearing voices and receiving telepathic messages.

Detectives discovered that Wilson had a fixation on Mr Burn and believed other Scottish actors were involved in sexual abuse.

On Wednesday, Lord Burns granted a compulsion and restriction order to keep Wilson, who wasn’t present in court, in the State Hospital in Carstairs, Lanarkshire,.

The order means he can only be released when he satisfies the Scottish Government that he no longer poses a risk to both himself and the public.

Lord Burns passed the order after hearing psychiatrist Dr Rachel Sibbett,34, say Wilson still believes that Mr Burn is an abuser.

She said: “He did not want to be here today. He is sorry about any witness involvement with regard to the incident.

“However, he wanted it said and recorded that his view about his victim remains the same as previously and he believes he was right.”

The court previously heard that the paranoid schizophrenic believed he had been tasked to out paedophiles by a secret society.

Stabbed in the neck

Lord Burns ruled that Wilson had committed attempted murder against the River City actor on March 2nd last year. The judge heard how Wilson grabbed hold of Mr Burn and stabbed him on the neck with a knife at Edinburgh’s Crichton's Close.

He also upheld a special defence lodged on behalf of Wilson that he was unable, because of a mental disorder, to appreciate the nature and wrongfulness of his conduct at the time of the incident and acquitted him.

Mr Burn,61, told the court that he was attacked as he left the Scottish Poetry Library, where he had given a reading.

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

"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 was saying I was a kiddie fiddler. I think he said 'he deserves to die'."

Attacker 'wanted to be an actor'

The actor told the court that the injury has healed. He said he later realised that he had met his attacker in 1995 and added: "He wanted to be an actor. We were doing a play at the Edinburgh Festival that year."

Police who arrived to detain Wilson found he had an axe and three knives and he told them he stabbed Mr Burn and was planning to chop him up.

On Wednesday Dr Sibbett told prosecution lawyer Sheena Fraser that Wilson still continued to receive treatment at the State Hospital.

She said that medics decided not to let Wilson come to court as he would have disrupted proceedings.

Dr Sibbett, who has spent the past three months treating Wilson, said: “I think if he was to see the victim or hear about him, it would agitate him and increase the levels of his distress.

“He would have been very disruptive.”

She told the court that in order to reduce the risk to both himself and to the public, Wilson needed to be treated in the State Hospital.

Dr Sibbett said that the accused had “limited insight” into his illness and receives high doses of anti psychotic medicine.

She added: “He requires regular and through tests and this can only be done within the setting of the State Hospital.”

Dr Sibbett also believes that Mr Wilson will only be released “many years down the line”.

Lord Burns said: “I am satisfied that the conditions for both the compulsion and restrictions order are met in this case.

“I will make a restriction order and compulsion order in this case and they will apply without limit of time.”