A north man has been jailed for more than three years after he repeatedly stabbed his friend who had just helped to secure him a job.
Sean Boyle flew into a drunken rage and attacked Sean Pierce after he turned up at his home to ask why he had taken the day off.
After striking him around the arm and leg Mr Pierce fled the scene in an attempt to get away from his attacker.
However Boyle, 21, stripped down to his waist and chased his victim down Diriebught Road in Inverness before stabbing him again from behind.
And after he had stabbed his friend he shouted: “I’ve stabbed him in the throat once, I’ll stab him again. I’ll do time for him.”
Mr Pierce was left with serious injuries and needed hospital treatment to save his life.
Yesterday Lady Wolffe said the attack was “vicious and sustained” and something that could not be tolerated in modern society when he appeared at the High Court in Aberdeen to be sentenced.
Boyle had previously admitted assaulting Mr Pierce to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement and to the danger of life when he appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh last month.
Yesterday the court heard that the assault happened when Mr Pierce turned up at the flat with Mr Boyle’s mother after he failed to turn up for his job.
Mr Pierce had secured the job for his friend and went to the property where Boyle, who had worked as a delivery driver, was staying with another friend in Inverness.
He then remained in the building with his friends drinking alcohol and after she left Boyle ended up fighting with Mr Pierce at the flat.
The father-of-one then picked up a knife and stabbed his friend in the upper leg and right arm when he tried to defend himself.
Representing Boyle, defence advocate Shahid Latif said his client had written a letter of apology which he handed to Lady Wolffe to read.
He said his client was a young man who suffered from low self esteem and considered himself to be a lost cause.
“Mr Boyle’s response to that was that he was ashamed of his behaviour and he could do no more than he has done and that’s to plead guilty.”
Lady Wolffe told Boyle he had committed a very serious charge of assault involving the repeated use of a knife on a friend on August 13 and jailed him for 40 months.
