Four years for knife attack

Aug 29 2008 by Stephen Robertson, Stirling Observer Friday

A MAN convicted of a brutal stabbing in Stirling was jailed for four-and-a-half years this week.

Ian Lapworth (44) stabbed Alexander Logan repeatedly at Barn Road in the city in June last year.

A jury found jobless Lapworth guilty by majority at his trial earlier this month of assaulting Mr Logan to his permanent disfigurement and danger to his life.

Lapworth, of Irvine Place, Stirling, was back in court on Wednesday to be sentenced.

His lawyer Grant Markie asked Sheriff Wyllie Robertson to take into account that the matter was “an isolated incident” and that there had been no previous convictions for crimes of violence.

He added that it was also Lapworth’s position that he himself had been the “victim of an assault” and believed there had been an element of provocation.

Sheriff Robertson, however, described the charge as “one of the most serious that can come through the sheriff court” and added that the trial jury had rejected the self-defence claim.

He told Lapworth: “You involved yourself in an incident on that night that had nothing to do to you. You attacked Mr Logan with a knife and you stabbed him.”