Hamilton thug escapes a jail term

Duo lured to close and assaulted

A Hamilton thug who lured two men to a town block of flats where they were viciously assaulted was last week ordered to carry out unpaid work, tagged and put on a curfew.

Nicole Cairns had attacked Decklin Law and his friend Connor Mather in the close near Low Waters Road on November 11, 2015.

The 19-year-old – and co-accused Jordan Richardson (20) – were found guilty on charges of assaulting Mr Law and Mr Mathers following a fourday trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court in January.

They had assaulted Mr Law to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement and Mr Mather to his injury.

The duo also robbed Mr Mather of a phone and had intended to rob Mr Law.

At Hamilton Sheriff Court last week, Richardson’s sentence was deferred until March 17 for a psychiatric report and he was detained in custody meantime.

Sheriff Allan Mckay also imposed a community payback order on Cairns, requiring her to carry out 200 hours’ unpaid work within 12 months as a direct alternative to custody.

She was also given a three-month restriction of liberty order, tagging her, and confining her to her home between the hours of 7pm and 7am seven days per week.

During the trial the jury heard that Mr Law, of East Kilbride, had been chatting to Cairns on Facebook that day and arrangements were made for him to visit Hamilton. However both he and his pal, both aged 20, never got to the flat. Mr Law was stabbed in the stomach by Richardson and Mr Mather was stabbed in the chest.

Mr Mather was also hit on the body by Cairns and other girls, unknown to the prosecutor, with wooden table legs.

They had met Cairns outside the block of flats. Once inside the close Richardson appeared wearing a surgical mask concealing his lower face.

He told the men to hand over their belongings, waving the knife in front of their faces.

Richardson also accused Mr Law of ‘getting wide on Facebook’ and cut him on the upper lip with the knife.

As Mr Mather went to hand over his mobile phone, Mr Law grabbed Richardson by the wrist and shoulder and pushed him towards the front door of the close.

As he held Richardson he tried to open the front door, but was unsuccessful.

He noticed that Cairns and other girls were hitting Mr Mather on the back with table legs.

Seeing an opportunity, Mr Law let go of Richardson and squeezed past the girls assaulting his pal, but at that point was stabbed in the stomach by Richardson.

Mr Law picked up a toy pram and threw it at Richardson, but he did not think it hit the accused.

He said he left the close at that point, but Mr Mather must have remained inside for two to three minutes. When Mr Mather got out of the close he told Mr Law he had been stabbed.

A joint minute of agreed evidence stated when Mr Mather was examined by a hospital doctor following the attack he was found to have a 1cm cut to the his chest, a cut to his ear lobe and abrasions.

A doctor also found a 1cm cut on Mr Law’s stomach.