A star of the hit TV series Outlander was the victim of a murder bid by a man who held delusional beliefs that Scottish actors were part of a paedophile ring, a court heard.

Jonathan Wilson stabbed Tam Dean Burn in the neck with a knife as he left a poetry venue in Edinburgh to head for a football stadium.

A judge was told that Wilson, 43, who is currently detained at the State Hospital in Carstairs, South Lanarkshire, was hearing voices and receiving telepathic messages.

Acting consultant psychiatrist Dr Rachael Sibbett said Wilson had a fixation on Mr Burn but added: "He believes other people are involved, specifically other Scottish actors."

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that the paranoid schizophrenic, who has a variety of psychotic symptoms, believed he was given a job to out a paedophile ring.

He received messages from different people in what he described as a special or secret society.

Lord Burns ruled after hearing evidence in the absence of Wilson that he had launched a murder bid on the River City actor on March 2 this year by grabbing hold of him and stabbing him on the neck with a knife at Crichton's Close.

Following an examination of facts, Lord Burns said: "I am satisfied on that evidence that this was a genuine attempt to murder Mr Burn."

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.

Lord Burns made an interim compulsion order holding Wilson at the State Hospital ahead of a further hearing in February next year.

Mr Burn, 61, was attacked as he left the Scottish Poetry Library, where he had given a reading, to make his way to Hibs’ ground.

He told the court: "I just felt someone getting a hold of me and a bit of a thud.

"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.”

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.