Two years for knife attack

A LERWICK man who stabbed an unwelcome visitor in the thigh in a bid to force him out his house was jailed for two years at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Thursday.

James Alexander Gray, whose address was given as Craiginches prison, in Aberdeen, admitted assaulting the man at 4 Grostane, on 20 November last year.

The court heard that Gray had been drinking during the evening before the assault and was at home with a friend who had also been out drinking during the early hours of the morning.

His friend invited another man to the house, but when he arrived a fight broke out.

Defence agent Ian McGregor said that Gray asked the man to leave, at which the man went “berserk”, kicked in a door and threw a bottle of wine at him, which missed and hit a wall.

Mr Mcgregor said Gray then went to the kitchen and grabbed a knife to threaten the man. “His intention was not to stab (the man) but simply to get him out of his property,” he said.

The court heard that Gray ended up stabbing his victim in the thigh leaving him with a five inch deep wound. Gray himself suffered a “substantial gash” to his knee and was arrested after neighbours called the police.

Sheriff Graeme Napier said that he had no alternative but to jail Gray, as he already had a serious record of offending, which included an assault and robbery using a knife.