Prisoner slashed sister’s ex partner

A VIOLENT prisoner who “harboured a grudge” against his younger sister’s ex-boyfriend slashed him during a confrontation in prison.

A judge was told John Etchells, who is currently serving an indeterminate jail sentence, attacked Liam McGhee with a blade inside Edinburgh’s Saughton Prison.

McGhee had a relationship with Etchells younger sister, which came to an end, and Etchells “harboured a grudge” against the attack victim.

Etchells, 27, from Dundee, approached Mr McGhee from behind as he sat at a dining table and slashed him on the face before fleeing.

Advocate depute Jane Farquharson told the High Court in Edinburgh: “The complainer jumped and tried to confront the accused who ran off into a cell. McGhee was unable to access the cell.

“CCTV footage shows him taking off his top to wipe the blood across his face as he paced around the communal area.

“From the CCTV footage that captured the incident the accused was identified. His cell was searched but no weapon was recovered.”

Etchells’s victim was taken to St John’s Hospital in Livingston and 13 sutures were put into wounds on his face, ear and shoulder.

The thug admitted assaulting McGhee to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement with a bladed implement on March 5 this year at the prison. At the time of the attack, Etchells was serving a six year sentence for attempted murder.

Last month, an order for lifelong restriction was imposed upon him with a minimum term of two years for a further attack on a victim to severe injury and permanent disfigurement with a weapon.

He has nine previous convictions for violence, including a stabbing at a flat in Lulworth Court in 2013.

Defence solicitor James Laverty said under his current sentences, Etchells’s earliest potential release date was in 2024. “He is realistic enough to know 2024 will not be the date of his release and he will not be released until such times as the obvious danger he poses is removed,” he said.

Judge Simon Collins sentenced Etchells to four years and eight months, to run consecutively with his current sentences.

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Saughton Prison