Knife brute caught with mobile phone in his prison cell
Lag caught out when he left device lying on his bed
A Paisley thug serving a sixyear sentence for knifing a man nine times was handed another four- month jail term after being caught with a mobile phone in his cell.
Sean Donnelly, 28, is currently serving the sentence in HMP Perth after repeatedly stabbing Shaun McInnes outside a house party in 2017 - leaving him with a collapsed lung.
The brute, formerly of the town’s Wellmeadow Street, has now been sentenced on further charges after prison guards caught him with a phone on June 13 last year.
Procurator fiscal depute Andrew Harding told Perth Sheriff Court that Donnelly was caught redhanded with the device lying on his bed after officers were called to a disturbance in his cell.
The court heard the incident took place at a time when all family visits had been suspended and there was no indication when they would be resumed, and the “opportunity” became available to use the phone to get in touch with his partner and two sons.
Donnelly - whose earliest release date is October 2023 - appeared via video link where he admitted having the phone.
Sheriff Gillian Wade said she took account of the “difficulties” Donnelly was facing because of the lockdown, but she ordered that the four months be served consecutive to his present sentence.
Donnelly was handed down the lengthy six- year jail term at Glasgow High Court in May 2018 following the violent attack on April 20, 2017.
The High Court heard that a raging Donnelly took exception to Mr McInnes telling him to “cut it out” after spotting him arguing with his partner.
The determined thug chased Mr McInnes ten times around a parked car before striking him over the head with a bottle, punching and kicking him and then pulling out a knife and stabbing him repeatedly outside a house party in Dalskeith Crescent, Paisley.
Donnelly fled the scene and passing binmen stopped to help blood-soaked Mr McInnes as he lay in Ferguslie Park Avenue.
Judge Lord Mulholland told Donnelly: “You pursued your victim and then attacked him.
“He could have died as a result of your actions.”