Serial criminal who climbed drainpipe to stab man jailed

A serial criminal who climbed a drainpipe to stab a man in his own home has been jailed for seven and a half years.

Connor McFarlane – who already had a High Court conviction – struck while wanted for another knife attack.

The 22-year-old left his victim with a potentially life-threatening injury following the murder bid at the flat in New Stevenston, Lanarkshire, on August 24 last year.

The attacker had, days earlier, carried out a similar assault on a stranger he believed had been texting a woman he had been seeing.

McFarlane was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow after earlier admitting to the crimes.

As well as being locked up, McFarlane will be supervised for a further five years on his release.

The court heard how the victim had been at home alone that night when he heard a noise coming from his living room.

Prosecutor Eilidh Robertson said he went on to discover McFarlane and another man inside. The veranda door was ajar.

The advocate depute: “McFarlane rushed towards him and struck him with a knife.

“They then exited via the veranda window and climbed down the drainpipe.”

The victim suffered two stab wounds and a partially collapsed lung, which could have put his life in danger. He was luckily able to leave the hospital three days later.

McFarlane had carried out an earlier knife attack on August 18.

The victim had been at a woman’s flat in New Stevenston.

McFarlane later turned up and asked the pair if they had been texting each other while he was in the room.

The woman said McFarlane’s “demeanour changed”. He went on to stab the victim who was sitting on the couch.

The victim initially thought he had been punched before finding his T-shirt blood-soaked.

He had suffered a single stab wound to the back.

McFarlane was eventually arrested on August 25.

He initially made no comment about the attack on him, but then stated to the police, “it was good you got me,” as he was “spiralling”.

McFarlane admitted to the attempted murder of the man as well as assaulting the other man to his severe injury.

Paul Nelson KC, defending, said: “He could have walked down the street, he could have done a great many things.

“The one thing he did do – it is so odd as to vouch for its veracity – is that he picked up the knife, climbed up the drainpipe, got onto the veranda and entered the man’s property.”

Lord Renucci stated McFarlane already had 14 previous convictions and had tried to minimise what he had done by “victim blaming”.

The judge: “You obviously like carrying a knife

“Your actions were not as a result of a rush of blood to the head. They were planned, calculated and deliberate.

“I am not sure what it will take for young men to learn that carrying of knives is totally unacceptable.

“It does not make you big or hard. Until we do, there is only one way the courts can deal with it.”