A war veteran lost his job with a leading offender-support charity after slashing a man with a carving knife, a court heard.
Shaun O'Donohue, 41, left 63-year-old Edward Cummings permanently scarred after the incident in Bo'ness, West Lothian. The court heard Mr Cummings had called a cab to take him to a local pub. When the taxi turned up, the driver noticed O'Donohue seemed to be following Mr Cummings as he left a nearby property, and had something metal in his hand.
When Mr Cummings got in, the taximan immediately locked the doors, but O'Donohue began rapping on the window and Mr Cummings asked the driver to unlock the doors again and got out and stood on the pavement facing O'Donohue. Falkirk Sheriff Court was told that O'Donohue was carrying "a kitchen carving knife with a six-inch blade".
He said he would "show Mr Cummings what he was going to do with it". Then he "slashed it down his cheek in one motion".
It left a wound, mainly superficial, but for four centimetres incised, from his chin to his ear. The tax driver called an ambulance, while O'Donohue walked off.
Doctors at the Forth Valley Royal Hospital closed the wound, but Mr Cummings was left with a scar on his left cheek, running to the corner of his mouth, and now suffers from anxiety, the court heard. O'Donohue, of Bo'ness, appeared for sentence on Thursday (Nov 24th) after pleading guilty to assaulting Mr Cummings to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement.
The incident occurred about 5.20 pm on June 5th last year (2021). Solicitor Lynn Swan, defending, said the offence had serious consequences for O'Donohue.
She said: "He was in employment at the time of this offence in June 2021, based in Edinburgh, working with vulnerable individuals. As a result of this, he lost that employment."
She said O'Donohue had also lost a position he held with the offender support charity Apex Scotland. She said: "He had worked with Apex Scotland as a service user, and then actually gained a contract with them.
"Regretably, as a result of this conviction for an offence of violence, he is not able to continue with that employment."
She said the conviction for violence also barred him from using his qualifications as an electrical engineer to work in airports. However, she said he was still studying psychology at the Open University, and had wanted to become a counsellor.
She said: "He has his own personal difficulties "He is a war veteran. He joined the armed forces -- the RAF -- on leaving school and he has completed tours of duty in Iraq.
"He left the RAF in 2008. He has suffered trauma, and was diagnosed in 2018 with complex post traumatic stress order.
She added that at the time of the offence, O'Donohue had suffered a relationship breakdown, his mental health had taken a downward spiral, and he "wasn't coping well".
Mrs Swan said O'Donohue had been consuming alcohol. She said: "His recollection of events is clouded by his alcohol consumption."
Jailing O'Donohue for 13-and-a-half months, Sheriff Christopher Shead told him: "This is a grave offence, with a knife, and significant consequences. It is exactly the kind of offence the court wishes to deter by imposing sentences of imprisonment.
"It is particularly unfortunate that you should be standing here in the dock for this offence, in circumstances where you have served your country, and all the other things that were said on your behalf. However I regret to say I have reached the conclusion that custody is the only appropriate disposal."
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