An Inverness man has been jailed for more than two years for a knife attack in Sutherland.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard yesterday that David MacLennan woke-up to discover Hugh Williamson cutting his leg with a knife.
He managed to push the 39-year-old away and then fled his home at 26 Mill Way, Brora, on April 5 last year.
Mr MacLennan was treated at the Lawson Memorial Hospital in Golspie for his deep leg wound, three inches above his ankle.
Fiscal Geoffrey Main told Sheriff David Sutherland that Williamson had entered the house uninvited through an unlocked door.
“The injury required a total of eight stitches. There is still a visible scar,” he added.
Williamson, of 92 King Duncan’s Road, Inverness, admitted a charge of assault to severe injury and was jailed for 28 months.
Mr Main said the pair had met up for the first time in years at a funeral a few days earlier but parted on bad terms.
Defending, Ken Ferguson told the court his client accepted a jail sentence was inevitable as he had similar previous convictions.
“It is his position that he was invited in and there was an argument. The knife was not his It belonged to Mr MacLennan so he did not introduce it to the flat.
“However he accepts he should not have used it.”
Jailing Williamson, the Sheriff told him: “Anyone who commits an offence, whether invited into the house or not, must accept a custodial sentence.
“You have served several periods of imprisonment for analogous matters but I will restrict the period since you pleaded guilty before trial.”