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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
Alan McEwen & Kris Gourlay

Edinburgh prisoner slashed by fellow inmate with 'psychotic traits'

A paedophile monster was left badly scarred in an Edinburgh prison razor attack by a fellow inmate behind a string of slashings.

Damien McCann was caged for repeatedly raping a girl, starting when she was aged 10, as his vile wife filmed the abuse.

The 37-year-old was left in agony after being set upon by Damian Fowler with a razor blade in the mess hall at Edinburgh's Saughton Prison. McCann, who is serving ten-and-a-half years, suffered severe lacerations to his face.

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One wound ran from the middle of his left cheek to his left ear. Fowler, 44, is behind a pair of previous blade attacks behind bars and was once told by a judge: "You have psychotic traits."

He appeared from custody at the city's sheriff court on Tuesday and pled guilty to assaulting McCann to his injury and permanent disfigurement, reports the Record.

Fiscal depute Chelsea Martin said Fowler launched the attack in the mess area using a razor blade. Ms Martin said McCann was left with a vertical laceration extending the length of the left side of his face which doctor had to glue closed.

She said a second horizontal laceration stretching from the middle of a cheek to his ear which was also glued. McCann sustained a small laceration to his left eyebrow, the court was told. The incident took place on November 28 2021.

McCann was jailed for repeatedly raping a girl starting from aged 10, in Midlothian. (Daily Record)

Defence agent David Allan said his client was currently serving a sentence of two years and three months. Fowler received that sentence last November for attacking inmate Jonathan Burns in the Glenesk wing at Saughton Prison in May 2021.

He struck Burns on the neck and body to his injury and permanent disfigurement with a sharp instrument.

Judge Lord Fairley placed Fowler on an order for lifelong restriction (OLR) at the High Court in Glasgow over that attack.

Fowler was behind another jail slashing in February 2012 when he stuck a sharp object in inmate Mugo Dalmar's cheek in Saughton Prison. After that assault on Dalmar, Fowler told prison officers, "He had it coming" and "I'm sick of his games".

McCann's wife, Mary, filmed the vile abuse. (Daily Record)

He was sentenced to 32 months for assault to injury and permanent disfigurement

Fowler's previous convictions include putting a carving fork to the neck of a terrified shop assistant in 2001 during an hour pass as a psychiatric patient in Edinburgh.

In March 2021 McCann was jailed for raping a young girl repeatedly over nearly three years at a house in Dalkeith, Midlothian. A judge previously heard how McCann's wife "encouraged" her sick husband.

McCann claimed the girl was "happy" during the attacks. Mary McCann faced the accusations but took her own life in January 2020 aged 39.

Police raided the couple's home in connection with indecent images, but went on to uncover footage of the abuse of the girl.

Cops found 20 clips of McCann raping the girl with the "majority" filmed by his wife.

A Scottish Prison Service spokesman said: "We continue to work with individuals in our care to reduce violence and offer support to those affected by it."

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