A knife thug who tried to kill a wheelchair-bound woman in her Catacol home has been jailed for more than eight years.
Mark Crawford plunged a knife into neighbour 62-year-old Mary Henderson’s neck and shoulders after telling her "you are going to die”.
Crawford previously admitted attempting to murder Ms Henderson at her home in Catacol Grove on July 17 last year. That happened just weeks after he had been freed from jail.
At the High Court in Glasgow on Tuesday, the 36-year-old was jailed for eight years and three months.
Sentencing, Lord Matthews told him “This was a vulnerable person who lived alone and required the use of a wheelchair.
“You befriended her, but, for some reason, you got it into your head that you should stab her. You almost killed her.
“You have a record involving violence. It appears to me that you are a dangerous individual.”
Prosecutor Chris McKenna previously told the court that Ms Henderson screamed down the phone to the operator at the bank call centre saying: “It’s Mark, he’s stabbing me,” and “phone the police.”
Crawford, who was a regular visitor to Ms Henderson’s home then left, but before doing so threatened to come back and finish her off.
Mr McKenna added: “The complainer had a vague recollection of using a tea towel to stop the bleeding. She was left in a very distressed state.
“About this time the police received a call via Avon and Somerset Police from the bank manager from Lloyds TSB who reported that they had received a call from Mary Henderson in which she stated that she was being assaulted by a man called Mark.”
When police arrived they had to force entry and found Ms Henderson sitting on her couch, which was saturated with blood, suffering from multiple wounds to her neck.
One officer applied pressure to her wounds before paramedics arrived and she was taken to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
They traced Crawford to his nearby home and found the knife he had used hidden under a rug. There was blood on the front of the letterbox of his home.
Ms Henderson, who has been left permanently scarred, had to undergo surgery to repair damage to an artery.
She also suffered damage to multiple blood vessels, a broken bone in her back, two black eyes and a fractured eye socket and nose.
The knife found had Ms Henderson DNA on it and her blood was also found on Crawford’s left trainer.
When interviewed by police Crawford said that he lived in Catacol Grove and claimed he had the knife for his protection.
Judge Lord Matthews deferred sentence on Crawford until January next year.
Defence QC Tony Graham will give his plea in mitigation then.
Crawford, who has numerous convictions for offences involving knives, will be monitored for three years on his release.
