A violent thug previously jailed for seven years after leaving a man for dead is back behind bars.
Steven McCulloch was last week found guilty of assault to severe injury and permanent disfigurement following an attack at Murray Square on December 29 last year.
Sentencing him to 13 months, Sheriff Vincent Smith told the 36-year-old he was “clearly a man of violence”.
McCulloch was sentenced to seven years in 2006 after he knifed Steven Craig following a petty argument whilst on eight bail orders.
The victim lay unconscious for 15 hours before his sister found him slumped in a pool of blood.
During that trial it also emerged that McCulloch was one of three East Kilbride youths charged with the brutal murder of a town centre busker.
Last week a jury took less than an hour to convict McCulloch after a two-day trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court.
That was despite his victim saying in evidence that he sustained the injuries prior to meeting McCulloch and categorically denied the thug was in fact his attacker.
During the summing up, fiscal depute Paula Russell told the jury that the injuries sustained by the victim were, according to medics, “consistent with a sharp,bladed object”.
She added that two witnesses saw a “disagreement” between the victim and McCulloch, with one saying he saw McCulloch throw a punch then “there was blood all over the victim’s face” when previously there was none.
The fiscal also said that the “story concocted” by the victim on the stand was “utter nonsense” in a bid to “have his pal’s back”.
Although no weapon was found following the attack, blood soaked tissue was seen lying on the ground after the victim went to a barbers shop in Murray Square for assistance.
The incident just after Christmas
McCulloch pled guilty and was admonished of a charge of failing to appear at an ID parade on March 11 this year with the Crown accepting a not guilty plea to failing to attend on another date.
His defence lawyer, Andy Illes, said his client had “struggled with” a heroin addiction and also suffered from bipolar syndrome, urging the sheriff to take in to account the “nature of the evidence” that was given by the complainer.
Sentencing McCulloch Sheriff Smith said: “You have been found guilty of a crime of violence to severe injury and permanent disfigurement – your record is extensive and you are clearly a man of violence.
“You have received custodial sentences in the past for such crimes and were sentenced to seven years for a particularly serious matter involving violence.”
His sentence was backdated to March 4.
Being led down to the cells McCulloch said to his partner unperturbed, “13 months, backdated, then halved”.
