Knife attacker jailed for contempt of court

A KNIFE attacker who was jailed for four years after bursting in on a sleeping man and assaulting him was sentenced to a further eleven months imprisonment for contempt of court.

Francis Whyte (42) struck Mark Ward with the weapon during the attack at 106 Nederdale, Lerwick, in Shetland, on June 22 last year.

Whyte was originally facing a charge of attempting to murder the victim, but a jury earlier convicted him of a lesser offence of assault to injury.

He was jailed for four years for the offence by Lord Burns at the High Court in Edinburgh last week after the judge told him he had carried out a premeditated attack and had been assessed as a high-risk of re-offending.

Whyte’s behaviour at a previous trial forced the abandonment of proceedings and he was brought back to the same court for further punishment, on Thursday.

The judge at the original trial, Lord Bannatyne, told him: “You were warned repeatedly. This was a serious contempt of court.”

“The result of your behaviour was the abandonment of the trial and considerable waste of court time and resulted in witnesses having to give evidence for a second time,” he said.

Lord Bannatyne said he would have jailed Whyte for a year, but reduced the sentence after recognising that he admitted he was in contempt of court straight away. 

Dave Finlay