Peacemaker was brutally attacked by angry friend

high court: Bid to calm situation led to vicious assault with weapon in flat

A man was facing a lengthy jail sentence yesterday after he was convicted of a brutal murder bid on a victim who had tried to act as a peacemaker.

David McLean struck Alan Wright with a weapon before punching him, stamping on him and repeatedly wounding him with a knife.

Mr Wright had gone out for a drink at a bar in Leslie, Fife, when he met longstanding acquaintance McLean who was out with others.

They later went to McLean’s home on Lumsden Road, Glenrothes, and were joined by others.

Mr Wright, 43, told the High Court in Edinburgh: “Me and David have always got on. We never had any issue or problems at all.”

He told advocate depute Ian McSporran QC that at the flat McLean was “quite drunk” and another man and woman had arrived.

Mr Wright said: “Arguments started happening. I just remember one minute trying to calm the situation down and the next minute I was being attacked.”

The murder bid victim said he was left with his forehead “hanging down”. “I felt the blood running in my eyes. I didn’t realise the extent of the damage,” he said.

He said the blows just kept on coming and he knew he had to try to get out of the top floor flat.

He said: “It was definitely weapons that were being used. At that time I couldn’t be 100% it was a knife, but once I saw the wounds it was quite clear it had been a knife or something very sharp.”

Mr Wright said he managed to get out but remembered he was still taking blows when he reached a bus shelter.

He described McLean as “the main aggressor”. He told police he remembered telling him to stop and that he saw him with a knife.

Mr Wright told the court he had more than 70 stitches in facial wounds and injuries to his arms and shoulder.

McLean, 34, had denied attempting to murder Mr Wright after assaulting him to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement and to the danger of his life while acting with others on May 2 last year, but was found guilty following a trial.

McLean had earlier admitted possessing and producing cannabis at his home.

The court heard that when police went to the flat looking for McLean they found it empty but saw a light on in the attic and found cannabis under cultivation.

Mr McSporran said: “He appears to have been growing cannabis for his own use.”

A judge deferred sentence on McLean until next month at the High Court in Glasgow for the preparation of a background report and remanded him in custody.

Lord Beckett told jurors that given the seriousness of his latest conviction and his record for violence “a significant prison sentence” was inevitable.