Life for knife thug who tried to kill 2 women tourists
A KNIFE attacker who tried to murder two women tourists outside their hotel has been jailed under a lifelong restriction order.
Peter Cameron stabbed his victims – both nurses – who were preparing to return to Northern Ireland following a short break in Edinburgh.
He knifed Bernadette Lester, then 60, ten times as she stood outside the Apex Hotel in the city’s Grassmarket with her friend Gillian Clarke. Mrs Clarke, then 58, was stabbed twice in the cheek and sustained injuries to her tongue and mouth.
A night porter at the hotel, 37-year-old Neil Robertson, was also wounded in the hand as he went to help the women.
After the attacks Cameron dumped his bloodstained knife in a bin.
At the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, judge Lady Scott told Cameron: ‘This was a frenzied and shocking attack on three separate people which came from nowhere.’
She said there was no background and no reason for the attack by the 39-year-old thug, who has a record for violent crime.
The judge pointed out that all three victims had been severely injured and were left permanently disfigured by the assaults in November 2018.
Imposing an order for lifelong restriction on Cameron, from Edinburgh, the judge ordered that he serve six years behind bars before being eligible to apply for release.
But Lady Scott told him that, under the indeterminate sentence, he must not assume he will be freed at the end of that period.
That will depend on the parole authorities deciding it is no longer necessary for him to be locked up for the protection of the public.
Even if released, Cameron will be supervised for the rest of his life.
Mrs Clarke told Cameron’s trial last year she and her friend had been chatting outside the
‘A shocking attack’
hotel in the early hours following their return from a meal. She said: ‘The attack just happened so fast. It was frenzied.’
Cameron, who is unemployed, admitted attempting to murder Mrs Lester. He also admitted assaulting Mr Robertson.
He further admitted assaulting Mrs Clarke. He had denied attempting to murder her but was unanimously convicted of the crime by a jury.
Defence counsel Ronnie Renucci, QC, said Cameron had ‘a very unfortunate childhood and adolescence’.
The court heard that an expert who produced a report on him following his convictions had concluded that he posed a high risk.
Cameron followed the court proceedings via a video link to Low Moss prison in Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow.