An Aberdeen man has been found guilty of stabbing a teenager with a sword in a row over noise.
Paul Morris knifed the boy after twice asking him and his friends to move on from outside his flat.
After asking them to be quiet the first time, the 24-year-old told the group he would take a sword to them if they did not leave.
And when one of the youths – who was 16 at the time – refused to back down, Morris stabbed him in the chest.
Morris, of Hazelhurst Terrace, Aberdeen, had denied having a knife during the confrontation on September 2 last year.
But a jury found him guilty of unlawfully wounding the teen, and making a threat with a bladed or pointed article.
He was however, cleared of the more serious charge of wounding the boy with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Judge Michael Harington deferred sentence until tomorrow, and released Morris on bail – but warned him prison was “almost inevitable”.
He said: “The jury has convicted you on overwhelming evidence that you had a knife. They have acquitted you of the more serious charge but convicted you of the lesser offence. I now have to sentence you for that.
“A custodial sentence is almost inevitable but I am prepared to get a report on you to assist me – on how long as much as anything else.”
During the three-day trial at Gloucester Crown Court, the jury heard Morris and his pregnant fiancee Kirsty Kumar were staying with friends in a flat in Brockworth when the group of noisy youths gathered outside.
The couple, who were preparing to move to Aberdeen the next day to live with Morris’s father, were looking after a child when the victim and his six friends congregated at about 9.20pm.
Prosecutor Julian Kesner told the court that Morris twice leaned out of the window to tell them to be quiet and go away.
When they ignored him and continued being noisy he threatened to go downstairs with a sword, Mr Kesner said.
Moments later Morris appeared in the street with a long knife and waved it around at the group.
All the youths backed away apart from the victim, who stood his ground and challenged Morris.
Mr Kesner told the court: “Morris, knife in hand, was angry and shouted at the victim.
“The situation was getting more and more volatile because the teenager was angry as well. He was shouting back at the defendant.
“This ugly situation evolved over 10-15 minutes. Tempers were up. Morris went back into the block of flats. But the teenager’s blood was up. His behaviour was unwise, let me be frank, and he followed the defendant upstairs and went into his flat.
“He didn’t get further than a small hallway. Morris, seeing him there, started wielding the knife at him. He then stabbed him in the chest with it.
“The stab wound was in the chest to the left of the sternum. It was at the level of the nipple and the injury was 2cms (0.7in) wide.
“Because of the place where he was stabbed, by the heart, had the wound pierced deeper it could have been very serious indeed, possibly even murder.”
During his own evidence, Morris insisted he did not have a knife at any time during the incident and said he did not know how the boy – who is now 17 – got injured.
He said when he went to confront the group, the victim asked: “Do you know who I am?”
Morris told: “I didn’t know who he was. I had never seen him before. I am 5ft 8in. He looked a lot bigger than me and I was scared.”
Morris, who has previous convictions for shoplifting and burglary, will be sentenced tomorrow.
