Knifeman sparked siege days before dad stabbed wife

A MAN sparked a four-hour stand-off with armed police after running amok with a knife – just three days before his father repeatedly stabbed his wife in the face with a corkscrew.

Denim MacLeod had stabbed himself with the serrated kitchen knife before using the weapon to keep officers at bay at Caledonian Place in Dalry.

The 28-year-old pleaded guilty at Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday to conducting himself in a disorderly manner, running at police officers while brandishing a knife and a breach of the peace following the incident at his flat on 5 August last year.

It can now be revealed that in an apparently unrelated incident on 8 August, his father, Ian MacLeod, mutilated his estranged wife's face with a corkscrew in a frenzied attack.

The 46-year-old was jailed for six years in December for the vicious attack on Debra MacLeod, 46, who was left scarred for life after part of her cheek was torn out.

Three days before the attack,

Caledonian Place was sealed off from 5:30pm until almost 10pm after his son charged at officers who were called to the scene by a member of the public.

His father even contacted the Evening News the following day to complain about police treatment of his son, whom he claimed was "manhandled".

Just 48 hours later, Ian MacLeod, of Drum Street, Gilmerton, would launch the assault on his wife which a judge branded "savage and brutal".

He was originally charged with attempted murder after the attack at the Thurston Manor Holiday Park, Innerwick, Dunbar, but the Crown accepted his guilty plea to a reduced charge of assault to danger of life.

Mrs MacLeod suffered eight stab wounds, as well as fractures to her face, and needed plastic surgery.

Sheriff James Scott deferred sentence on Denim MacLeod until next month for background reports and kept him on bail.

Fiscal depute Gerard Drugan told yesterday's hearing that a neighbour spotted Denim with numerous injuries and covered in blood and was told he had self-harmed with a knife.

MacLeod asked the neighbour and then girlfriend Jade Cairney to leave but she chose to stay.

Mr Drugan said: "The police officers were afraid for their safety and that of the paramedics."

During the hearing, MacLeod also admitted possession of a hammer at Gladstones Bar in Leith's Mill Lane, on 6 February last year. The court heard he was surrounded by a group of eight people and was being attacked.

He pleaded not guilty to a charge alleging he assaulted Joseph Haughian by hitting him on the head with a hammer and biting him on the arm. This was accepted by the Crown.