Man slashed cousin's belly in Plean murder bid

Warning: This article contains details that some readers may find distressing

A man who slashed his cousin's belly open with a kitchen knife in Stirlingshire has been jailed for 10 and a half years.

A court heard Thomas McCallum left 44-year-old Roddy Stewart seriously injured after attacking him in the street in Plean.

McCallum was told "you did not care if he lived or died" by a judge at the High Court in Stirling.

The 35-year-old was found guilty of attempted murder following a four-day trial in December.

The trial was told the incident happened in May 2024 in the village's Wallace Crescent.

Jurors were told Stewart was attacked by McCallum after going to a woman's home.

The jury heard a claim that the victim had gone there to collect money and had been "shouting something about chopping or stabbing, something to do with her children".

The woman's partner, George Williamson, who has since died, was said to have gone after Stewart and struck him with a golf club.

Stewart hit back with the broken neck of a Buckfast bottle, before McCallum stabbed Stewart twice, once to the stomach and once to the upper torso.

Prosecutor Paul Mullen said McCallum had attacked Stewart with murderous intent, and left him "with his intestines on the outside of his body".

Witness Charlene Morgan, 46, a friend of Stewart, said she'd helped the stricken man "hold in his guts".

Local resident Greg Forsyth, 35, passing by at the time, said: "A boy walked up to me holding his guts and asked me to phone for an ambulance."

Stewart was subsequently taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow with his bowel protruding from a wound in his stomach.

He required emergency surgery and doctors said he had suffered such significant loss of blood volume it could have led to organ failure.

The trial heard Stewart was left with a scar running from his armpit to below his navel.

While giving evidence, Stewart lifted up his top to show his scars, pointed at McCallum in the dock, and told jurors: "That (expletive) animal did that."

McCallum had denied the charge, claiming that it was George Williamson who had stabbed Stewart.

McCallum appeared by video link for sentencing.

Judge Lord Stuart told him: "Entirely unprovoked and with a knife you must have brought from the house, you stabbed Mr Stewart.

"The jury verdict makes it clear you intended to kill him or you did not care whether he lived or died."

Stewart will also be monitored in the community for five years following his release from jail.