A dad who stabbed his ten-year-old son to death before trying to murder a young girl has been jailed.

Andrew Morris was sentenced to 16 years in prison for killing son Kane and stabbing an eight-year-old girl in Coupar Angus, Perth and Kinross in November.

The 38-year-old then stabbed himself and jumped from the roof of the house where his son's body was found.

Kane was stabbed six times - once in the chest and five times in the back - before walking into the young girl's bedroom to try to help her.

The injured boy then collapsed and died in front of her.

The girl was found with stab wounds to her stomach and limbs.

Morris sobbed in dock throughout his sentence while Lord Mulholland said he would pay a "heavy price" for inflicting horrid violence on two young children.

He said: "Kane's selfless bravery was in contrast to your (Morris's) cowardly actions."

Kane's mum, Laura Ann Gillie, described her son as the "bravest" and most "heroic" person she has known.

She said: "Today's outcome does not change the sentence I face - a life without my beautiful son.

"Kane was and still is the bravest and most heroic person I have ever known and he will forever be absent from our lives. I'm proud to call him my son.

"The days and nights are spent blaming myself. I am a mother who failed to protect her child and that guilt is a weight greater than anyone could ever imagine."

Morris, who was in the Army for five years, worked as a farmhand in a family business in Coupar Angus.

Friends visited Morris on November 11 and left him watching football and drinking a cup of tea shortly after midnight.

Shortly after 1.50am, Morris' niece Iona McPherson made a one-minute drunken call to him and put the phone on loudspeaker.

Prosecutor Alex Prentice QC had told the court: "The accused claims to have no memory of killing one child and attempting to murder another.

"However, he said he thought he heard his niece Iona cackling on the phone and said subsequent events were blurry.

"As a result of this call, he said he acted to protect himself and his family from some impending mortal danger."

Morris was treated by paramedics as he lay injured in the street before telling them he had stabbed two children.

Efforts to get to the children were hampered because Morris had barricaded the front door.

When the ambulance crew got in they found the eight-year-old with stab wounds to her stomach and limbs.

Kane was lying collapsed outside the bedroom she had been sleeping in while the girl suffered a collapsed lung and spent four weeks in hospital.

The killer had five stab wounds, a fractured left femur, a fracture of his pelvis and rib injuries which were all self-inflicted.