Man jailed for 8 years after "alcohol-fuelled frenzied attack" with a knife

Tuesday 26 June 2018

A 27-year-old has been jailed for eight years after he repeatedly stabbed a 19-year-old man in what was descrbed in Court as an "alcohol-fuelled frenzied attack", causing multiple injuries, in October 2017.

Darren McKeegans, of Bellshill, Scotland, also cut his girlfriend's arm in the attack and threatened a different 19-year-old man with a knife.

McKeegans appeared in the Royal Court yesterday facing three counts of grave and criminal assault. The Solicitor General Mark Temple told the Court that the attacks took place in the early hours of 1 October 2017. The evening before the incident McKeegans had been at home at Leslie Sinel Close drinking and chatting with his girlfriend and one of her friends. Two men, both 19, who had been out drinking in town joined them at around 03:00. Neither of them knew McKeegans.

Shortly after they arrived McKeegans told his girlfriend that he didn't like the two men and was getting bad vibes. As McKeegans was having a cigarette in the kitchen with the female friend and one of the two men, he talked about fights he had been in when he was in Scotland and how he had "sliced people with knives" and attacked them with an axe. 

As all five people were in the lounge, one of the victims, Mr X mentioned a fight he had been in recently. McKeegans apparently told him, "Let's go into town and find them, I will sort them out," but the man refused. The Court was told McKeegans became aggressive, spat on the floor and suddenly jumped on the man. Mr X thought it was a play fight as they had not had an argument before. McKeegans knelt on top of him and grabbed his neck with both of his hands, trying to push his thumbs down into the victim's windpipe. He said: "I'm gonna kill you." Mr X tried to get his hands off but McKeegans punched him in the face five times. 

Two of the people in the room tried to get him off the victim. McKeegans then tried to grab the other man, Mr Y, but he ran out of the flat. He said he virtually jumped over the whole first flight of stairs and fell over. McKeegans ran after him with a knife in his hand. He ran out in the direction of the main road and was heard saying "I'm gonna *** kill you," by a neighbour.

Pictured: The assaults took place at Leslie Sinel Close.

Mc Keegans then came back to the flat and tackled Mr X to the floor. He stood over him with a knife and shouted, "I'm gonna slit your throat." Its alleged he then tried to do so, but Mr X moved his left arm to stop the knife and was cut on the forearm and down his chin. McKeegans then stabbed him six times, including to the head, before the knife snapped. McKeegans then seized another knife and stabbed Mr X four or five times in the abdomen.

McKeegans' girlfriend tried to stop him and he then waved the knife at her, cutting her right arm. He then continued to attack Mr X until someone shouted "Police," at which point he ran out of the kitchen with the knife still in his hand.

Police arrived on the scene at around 06:25 and heard "horrible and blood curdling female screams." McKeegans tried to escape but PC Abreu restrained him. He then resisted when officers tried to handcuff him and had to be put in leg restraints.

Pictured: The Solicitor General Mark Temple. 

The attack on Mr X caused a number of wounds, some of them 9 cm long. One of them to his right arm required surgery and damaged the nerve. The Solicitor General said Mr X was suffering from long term nerve damage, scarring and PTSD as a result of the attack. 

McKeegans admitted that on the night of the incident he had drank eight cans of lager, three bottles of wine and two litres of vodka. 

McKeegans initially pleaded not guilty but then admitted guilt on the basis of recklessness rather than intent.

The Solicitor General told the Court that McKeegans had eight previous convictions for 15 offences, including assault, breach of the the peace and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner likely to cause fear or alarm.

He describe the assaults as unprovoked and said that the blows had been aimed with a lot of force being used, enough to snap the knife blade. He therefore moved for a 10-year prison sentence. 

Pictured: Advocate Rebecca Morley-Kirk was defending McKeegans.

Advocate Rebecca Morley-Kirk, defending, said that the Solicitor General's conclusions were too high. She added that there was no up-to-date medical evidence as to how Mr X's injury was progressing and that it was therefore not possible to judge the long term damage. 

She said that while McKeegans had a previous conviction for an assault it had been in the context of an arrest on a police officer and therefore fell into a different category. She said McKeegans didn't have a background of serious violent offences and that he didn't intend to kill the victim.

She said he was remorseful, adding that the fact his girlfriend and her mother were willing to speak on his  behalf was significant. She told the Court that McKeegans had made the most of options available to him in prison by taking English and Maths lessons and had achieved enhanced prisoner status. 

Pictured: The Deputy Bailiff, Tim Le Cocq.

The Deputy Bailiff, Tim Le Cocq, who was sitting with Jurats Collette Crill, Elizabeth Dulake, Geoffrey Grime, Robert Christensen and Robert Kerley, said that the very substantial amount of alcohol McKeegans drank was clearly the cause of the assaults. 

He described the attack as sustained, noting that the injuries caused were very serious but could have been "very much worse," "he could have been killed," he added.

He said that the inexplicable level of violence McKeegans expressed was worrying to him and the Jurats, adding "This was an alcohol-fuelled frenzied attack on a wholly innocent victim."

He said that McKeegans' references spoke highly of him but made the level of violence even more inexplicable. He accepted there was some mitigation available to McKeegans and sentenced him to eight years in prison.

Following the sentencing the police said: "The motive for this attack was never established and in addition to the physical injuries sustained, from which the victim has yet to fully recover, he also continues to suffer significant emotional stress from this incident, which has also affected his whole family.