Man jailed for six years after party knife attack

A MAN arrested for a vicious knife attack after his mother phoned the police has been jailed for more than six years.

Anthony Cairns, 21, had an 
argument at a party and sent a text message to his girlfriend, warning: “I’m going to kill.” Minutes later, he assaulted Stuart Johnstone, 22, inflicting injuries that required life-saving surgery.

Detectives searched for Cairns for almost three weeks and finally arrested him after his mother called to say he had come to her house.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that Cairns, of Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, had a history of violent offending. The judge, Lord Pentland, said his record was “particularly troubling” for someone his age.

Lord Pentland said he would have imposed a ten-year jail term but could discount it to six years and eight months because Cairns had pleaded guilty. He also ordered that Cairns be closely supervised for four years at the end of the prison term.

Cairns admitted attempting to murder Mr Johnstone on 28 April, at the home of a friend in Annan. He had been freed from jail two months earlier and was still on licence at the time.

Advocate-depute Iain McSporran said a number of people had been drinking at the house and Cairns and Mr Johnstone had an argument. Cairns went home and armed himself with two knives. He sent the text message to his girlfriend and returned to the house.

A fist fight broke out between the two men, and Cairns took the knives from his socks and attacked Mr Johnstone. One of the cuts Cairns inflicted went down to the bone of his victim’s arm.

Defence counsel Susan Duff said the attack had occurred when Cairns was “heavily intoxicated”. She said: “He wants to use his time in custody to undertake courses to address his problems with alcohol and drugs.”.”