Man jailed over sustained knife attack in Peebles

A man who carried out a sustained knife attack in the Borders after consuming a cocktail of drink and drugs has been jailed for five years.

Glenn Todd stabbed his victim eight times in the back and inflicted a further wound to his temple with a kitchen knife after a confrontation.

The 25-year-old, formerly of Hawick, was originally charged with attempting to murder Gavin Murray at an address in Peebles in July 2021.

However, the Crown accepted his guilty plea to a reduced charge of assaulting his victim to his severe injury and danger to life.

At the High Court in Edinburgh, judge Norman McFadyen told Todd that he had committed a crime of "significant violence using a dangerous weapon".

"Clearly a custodial sentence is inevitable," he added.

The judge told him in sentencing him he took into account his age at the time of the offence and his lack of maturity but added it was "troubling" that he was now aged 25 and showed little evidence of maturity.

He ordered that Todd should be under supervision for a further three year period in the community when he will be under licence and can be returned to prison if he breaches its conditions.

The court heard that he was temporarily staying at the house in Peebles when Mr Murray turned up.

Drugs and drink were consumed but a dispute broke out between the two men and Todd used the weapon to stab his victim, penetrating both lungs.

Neighbours saw Mr Murray staggering in the street and tried to stem the bleeding and called an ambulance.

The court heard that Todd, who has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and ADHD, had a criminal record stretching back to 2016 which included convictions for assault.

After he was arrested following the attack he admitted to police in an interview that he stabbed Mr Murray but claimed that he acted in self defence.

Defence counsel Gail Gianni said that he was often unable to control his behaviour when he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

She said he had a long-standing history of drug misuse which started with experimenting with cannabis at a young age and had seen him start using heroin "every other day" about seven years ago.