Drug fuelled knife attacker jailed for stabbing man in Dunoon

A drug-fuelled knife attacker was jailed for six years today after stabbing a man in a street attack.

Minutes before the assault Jack Bell had turned up outside his victim's home armed with a samurai sword and tomahawk making threatening gestures.

Bell walked up to Lloyd McInnes when he later left the house in Dunoon, in Argyll, to visit a friend and thrust a lock knife into the left side of his chest.

After he was detained at the local police station Bell later shouted at an acquaintance of the victim: 'How's Lloyd. He got the real steel.' He added: 'One down three to go.'

Mr McInnes (37) was taken by ambulance to Cowal community hospital after the assault before being airlifted by helicopter to Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

A chest drain was inserted to help with an injured lung.

A judge told Bell at the High Court in Edinburgh: 'It is only by extreme good fortune the victim survived.'

But Lady Scott said the victim had to give up his employment in the wake of the attack on him by Bell on July 8 this year.

She told Bell, who has previous convictions for violence and possession of an offensive weapon: 'This is a serious course of conduct involving lethal weapons.'

'The background to these offences appears to have been a dispute between you and your victim and his associates over stolen money,' she said.

The judge pointed out that a background report prepared on Bell had assessed him as posing a high risk of re-offending.

Lady Scott said: 'It is to be hoped you will address your substance abuse while in custody and undertake the programme recommended to you by the social work department.'

The court heard that Mr McInnes had received a phone call from a friend in the early hours of the morning asking him to help as Bell was at his house in Kirk Street, Dunoon, and was pacing the floor with a knife.

Mr McInnes went to the street with others intending to confront Bell over money allegedly stolen from a cousin.

They found Bell standing at the top of stairs at a close and realised that he did have a knife and decided to leave and return to Mr McInnes' home.

Mr McInnes was later in the kitchen when he saw Bell armed with the sword and hatchet and was then attacked on leaving the house.

Bell, of Kames Place, Dunoon, was originally charged with attempting to murder Mr McInnes, but his guilty plea to a reduced charge of assaulting him to his severe injury and to the danger of his life at the town's Wellington Street was accepted by the Crown.

He also admitted being in possession of a knife at a close in Kirk Street and being in possession of a sword and axe at Auchamore Road, in Dunoon.

Bell also admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner at Dunoon police station on July 9 by shouting, swearing and making threats. He had been freed on bail in April this year at Dunoon Sheriff Court.

Defence counsel John McElroy said Bell had "an unfortunate set of circumstances" and suffered from ADHD, Tourette's syndrome and had ongoing drug problems.

He said: 'At the time of these particular offences he was very much under the influence of strong drugs.'