Thug tried to stab man in front of youngster
Terrified woman flees with child as blade is brandished
A knifeman tried to stab a man in front of a four-yearold child in a Wishaw street.
Stuart McGowan got into an argument after going to a house to pick up his friend’s belongings.
The 32- year- old admitted assaulting a man by trying to repeatedly to attack him with a knife in Hazeldean Crescent on June 16 last year.
He also admitted attempting to slash his girlfriend’s car tyres in the town’s Tinto Crescent on August 26.
McGowan was jailed for 22 months at Hamilton Sheriff Court last week.
Paul Jamieson, prosecuting, said the victim’s daughter had shared a house with McGowan’s friend.
The victim was helping her take belongings from the property when McGowan turned up and an argument started. McGowan left but returned a few minutes later with a knife.
Mr Jamieson told the court: “The accused strode towards the victim and said, ‘I’m going to do you. Do you want some of this’?
“The incident was captured on
CCTV which shows a woman with a child running away as the accused lunged repeatedly at the man.”
None of the blows made contact and McGowan fled the scene in a car.
Police officers found the victim’s family “visibly shaken”.
The fiscal said McGowan wasn’t traced at that time. Then, on August 26, he phoned his girlfriend and threatened to “get her and slash her”.
He arrived at her home and she filmed him on her phone as he tried – unsuccessfully – to slash the car tyres with a knife.
McGowan also threw a brick at the vehicle, but it missed.
McGowan has two previous convictions for possessing a blade and defence agent Stephen MacBride conceded his record “does not assist his predicament”.
The accused claimed that he took a knife to the address only after he was assaulted there on his first visit.
Mr MacBride added that, despite the incident with his girlfriend, the couple’s relationship is “strong”.
Sheriff Colin Dunipace backdated McGowan’s 22-month sentence as he has been in custody since August 27.