62-year-old knife thug jailed for leaving "neighbour from hell" scarred for life in stabbing

A 62-year-old has been jailed for stabbing his "neighbour from hell" and leaving him scarred for life.

James McLaughlin has been locked up for nearly three years for assaulting next door neighbour Craig Mullen outside their homes.

He plunged a serrated kitchen knife into Mullen's back and stomach, leaving Mullen writhing in agony on the ground.

He attacked Mullen while kids played in a play park just yards away.

He then calmly walked away with the weapon as Mullen got to his feet and checked at his wounds.

The attack was captured on camera and shown during McLaughlin's Greenock Sheriff Court trial.

He denied assaulting Mullen on July 13, 2024, in Stanton Square, Port Glasgow but was convicted by a jury.

They found him guilty of the two charges he faced - repeatedly stabbing Mullen with a knife to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement and possession of a knife in a public place.

Sheriff Anthony McGeehan jailed him for 152 weeks for the offences and said: "You armed yourself with a large knife and carried out an unprovoked attack on a disabled neighbour in full view of children playing in a park."

McLaughlin had claimed Mullen was actually the aggressor and the one with the knife on the day in question.

Giving evidence in his own defence, McLaughlin said: "I approached him to tell him to stop his carry on as he put me through two years of hell.

"That man threatened to put a knife through my four-year-old grandson.

"I reported it to the police but the police never done anything about it.

"He had a knife on him when I walked down.

"I was going to tell him to stop it - everything, all the carry on he's put me through.

"I was trying to reason with him. I did not stab him."

He was asked by prosecutor Maria Murdoch how Mullen came by his injuries.

He said: "I never stabbed him, that was during the struggle for the knife - it can only be that.

"You're trying to say I stabbed him. I did not. I got the knife off him and I went.

"You see me [on the video] taking the knife off him and walking away."

McLaughlin told the court that after he disarmed Mullen he left the area, as he was going to a barbecue in memory of his daughter, who had died in July 2021.

He said he put the knife in a bin at his ex-wife's house and never contacted the police because he considered the matter to be over.

He said: "As far as I was concerned I had a cut and I didn't think he was injured so I was just willing to let it go."

When he was cautioned by police after being detained over the incident, McLaughlin replied: "S****. I was the one assaulted, I just defended myself."