SQUADDIE IS LET OFF FOR STAB FRENZY

Jurors accept self-defence claim for private on murder bid charge

- VIC RODRICK

A SOLDIER who stabbed a fellow private 12 times in a barracks bust-up has been cleared of attempting to murder him.

Jurors accepted private Paula Tikonatabua's claim that he was acting in self-defense when he drunkenly grabbed a kitchen knife and attacked his room-mate during an argument.

The infantryman said he believed bare-knuckle boxer Mani Hameed was going to kill him in the barracks bedroom they shared.

Mani, 20, told jurors at the High Court in Livingston there had been a "rowdy, drunken evening" in the barracks that weekend in May 2022.