Prison stabbing: Son tried to kill dad he'd never met for 'abusing mum'

A dad who had never seen his son was stabbed by him the first time they met while both in the same prison.

Lee Spence, 25, struck his father John on the head and neck with a knife on July 12, 2025 in HMP Perth.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that John, a prisoner, was unaware that Lee was his boy from a previous relationship – they had never met or seen each other before but were serving custodial terms on the same wing.

Prosecutor Fraser Matheson told judge Lord Renucci on Friday that Lee knew who John was and he wanted revenge for how his dad allegedly subjected his mum to domestic abuse.

This led to him attacking John, who needed urgent treatment at Ninewells Hospital following the assault.

Spence made incriminating admissions to prison officers following the attack.

“The accused told prison officers that he had slashed the complainer as he had assaulted his mother when he was a baby,” Mr Matheson told the court.

Judge Lord Renucci asked: “Was the complainer aware that he was his father?”

Mr Matheson replied: “He was aware he had a son but he did not know who that son was.”

‘Revenge attack’

John had spent the moments before the attack looking for a cup – he walked into Spence’s cell and this led to him being attacked.

Spence told prison officers that he flushed the weapon down the toilet after the attack.

Defence solicitor advocate Gordon Martin KC told Lord Renucci that Spence’s mum told him of the alleged abuse that John carried out on her – and that this motivated him to attack the complainer.

Mr Martin added: “He had no reason to doubt her.”

Spence of Leslie, Fife, pled guilty on Friday morning to a charge of attempted murder.

Lord Renucci deferred sentencing for background reports to be prepared. He will be sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on January 9, 2026.

Son in prison for violent assault on woman

The court heard that Spence had several previous convictions. He was given three years and eight months in September 2022 for throttling a woman until she blacked out.

In that case, Spence was originally charged with attempted murder but earlier admitted a reduced charge of assault to injury and danger of life in an attack on March 2 and 3, 2022 at in Leslie, Fife.

The sustained violence perpetrated against her left a doctor noting 16 separate injuries when she was seen at Queen Margaret Hospital, in Dunfermline, in Fife.

Advocate depute Margaret Barron said: “The physician who examined the complainer concluded that her injuries were consistent with being assaulted and the haemorrhaging in her eyes was consistent with strangulation.”

At the High Court in Edinburgh, Lady Carmichael told him: “You are 22 years of age and therefore a young person. I require to take that into account in selecting an appropriate sentence.”

But the judge said that there was no alternative to a custodial sentence because the assault was to the danger of the victim’s life and involved hitting her on the head with a metal pole and restricting her breathing until she passed out.

Lady Carmichael said he would have faced a five-and-a-half-year jail term but for his early guilty plea.