A man has been jailed for more than seven years after causing “life-changing injuries” to his neighbour in a vicious attack sparked by a dispute over a parking spot.
Stephen McAulay, 35, knifed James Duncan “multiple times” to the head and body outside his home in Glasgow’s Carntyne area on May 13, 2024. The pair had initially clashed over a parking space on their street, before McAulay later turned up at Mr Duncan’s property wielding a blade.
The brutal assault left Mr Duncan requiring emergency surgery for a chest wound, whilst head injuries caused “significant” vision loss. McAulay admitted attempted murder at Glasgow’s High Court on October 15. At Edinburgh’s High Court on Tuesday, he was handed a seven-and-a-half year prison term.
(Image: DAILY RECORD)
Delivering his sentence, Judge Lord Young told him: “On the day of the attack there had been a confrontation between you (and Mr Duncan) in which you received a modest injury to your face.
“Whatever the rights and wrongs of that dispute, you would not let the matter rest.
“Later that same evening you provoked further confrontation with the victim in his garden and on the street.”
The judge rejected McAulay’s assertion that he had carried the knife for “self-defence”.
He told him: “You went looking for your victim to continue the argument, and you took a knife with you that you were prepared to use.”
Lord Young revealed that he had perused a victim impact statement from Mr Duncan detailing the profound effects of the assault.
“He will struggle to return to work,” he informed McAulay.
“These were truly life-changing injuries that you have inflicted.”
The judge recognised that McAulay had no prior convictions for violence, and that the attack seemed to be “caused more by intoxication and loss of face than anything else”.
However, he admonished the 35 year old, stating that using a knife he had brought to the scene was a “very serious crime”, warranting a custodial sentence.
McAulay, appearing in court clad in a black hoodie and blue jeans, displayed no emotion as the sentence was pronounced.
Earlier, his solicitor Ross Yuill labelled McAulay’s choice to “arm himself with a knife” and confront his neighbour as “inexplicable”.
He addressed the court: “I absolutely accept on his behalf that elevation of behaviour from what appeared to be a relatively minor neighbour-type dispute to end up in a situation he has ended up in was inexplicable.”
He added that McAulay was “sorry” for the incident and he “wishes again to offer his apologies to the complainant”.