A violent racist who tried to murder an African man in a savage, unprovoked attack on the complete stranger was jailed for nine years.
Stephen McHarg and an accomplice launched the vicious murder bid on Ghanaian Abdul Koroma as he walked through the Knightsridge area of Livingston, where he lived with his family.
A judge told McHarg (28) at the High Court in Edinburgh: “One eye witness who saw the assault described you and your co-accused as being like hyenas.”
Lord Fairley ordered that McHarg, who has previous convictions for violence, should be kept under supervision for a further five-year period when he can be returned to prison if he breaches licence conditions while in the community.
The judge said that he would have jailed him for 11-and-a-half years if he was convicted of the offence after trial.
McHarg, a prisoner, and Liam McKee (22) earlier admitted assaulting the victim to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement and to the danger of his life in the racially aggravated attempted murder at Erskine Way and Logan Way, in Livingston.
McKee was jailed for seven years for his part in the attack earlier this year.
Mr Koroma was repeatedly struck on the head and body with a knife, pursued and repeatedly punched and kicked until he was on the ground.
The attackers then repeatedly stamped on him and hit him with glass bottles and pieces of wood, causing him to lose consciousness.
The victim later told police that the attack was so violent that he believed his assailants were trying to kill him. Witnesses called 999 with one woman stating: “He is on the ground unconscious. I think they are killing him. He is actually going to die.”
Mr Koroma was found in a garden covered in blood. He was taken to hospital with knife wounds to his head and body, including a penetrating stab wound to his chest, bruising to his brain and facial fractures.
McHarg was found at a nearby house and tried to run from police. He said he had “seriously assaulted a guy”. He said: “I stabbed that ******. I was going to murder him.”
McHarg also said: “I went round three different times to cut him like a road map. You will not be able to stitch his face.” He also told officers that he had “done that ******”
The court was told that Mr Koroma was talking on his phone via an earpiece when McKee shouted at him and pulled up his jumper to reveal a large knife.
As the attackers approached him they were heard discussing “who was going to do it”. McKee was heard to shout: “You should not even be here. You should go back to your own place as this is mine.”
Defence solicitor advocate Iain McSporran KC, for McHarg, said it was “an extremely serious crime”.
He said the judge was faced with either imposing a lengthy extended sentence on McHarg or an Order for Lifelong Restriction.
But the defence lawyer said that an expert report prepared on him indicated that if he engaged meaningfully with treatment then he could be managed in the community.
He said it was McHarg’s co-accused who was armed with the knife which he used during the attack.
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