Shopkeeper left scarred after horror knife attack
A GLASGOW shopkeeper has described the moment a knife wielding masked man left him permanently disfigured.
Barry Crawley, was working at his family-run newsagents in Govan Road on October 9, last year, when the attacker struck.
Alan Thomson, 25, travelled five miles from his home in Drumchapel to carry out the premeditated assault after being told that Crawley was a paedophile.
Mr Crawley, who has worked in Barry’s Newsagents for 17 years, said: “I was doing my money and my head was down at the counter.
“I knew someone had come in the shop but usually I let people look around for a bit before dealing with them.
“As soon as I looked up a large knife came swinging past my face – it just missed my face by less than a centimetre.
“He swung again and hit my chest and tried to get round the back of the counter.
“He swung the knife about eight times onto my arm – my thumb was hanging off and my arm was broken. I knew he wasn’t going to stop so I had to go for him.
“I’m lucky he never actually stabbed me with it – luckily the knife was too big to actually do it. It was a frightening experience.”
The shopkeeper managed to get his attacker, who had his face hidden by a scarf and his hoodie pulled tight around his head, onto the ground, forcing him to drop the weapon.
He then got the knifeman in a headlock and dragged him through to the back of the shop where he pinned him down until police arrived eight minutes later.
The two men were taken to hospital where Mr Crawley was treated for a broken elbow, a severed thumb and cuts to his head, chest and leg.
Speaking after the attack, he said that no longer has feeling in his thumb due to nerve and tendon damage and is in “constant pain”.
Mr Crawley added: “I didn’t know him before he came into the shop. A lot of people say a lot of stuff about me in Govan and he said it was because I was a paedophile.
“He’d heard something then came to the shop – that’s the first I’d seen him.
“There’s still a bit of fear coming to work. It’s not so bad since the decent weather but when it’s bad weather and people start wearing scarf’s and hoods, it will be different.”
Thompson appeared at the High Court in Livingston last week where he was found guilty of assaulting the shopkeeper to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement, permanent impairment and to the danger of his life.
He denied attempting to murder Mr Crawley in the attack and is facing a lengthy prison term when he is sentenced next month.