Man believed he’d lost eye in mate’s screwdriver attack

Jan 29 2009

A HAMILTON man thought he had lost an eye after a drinking buddy stabbed him with a screwdriver.

Robert Johnston had repeatedly struck David Carruthers on the head with the weapon following a drinking session on March 5 last year.

After the attack at Johnston’s Milton Street home, Carruthers, who was covered in blood, asked a witness to retrieve his eye.

But the witness told him that his eye was still in his head.

Fiscal depute Gillian Bradshaw told Hamilton Sheriff Court on Monday that Johnston and Carruthers had been drinking at the home Johnston shared with his mother.

She added: “As the complainer leaned over to pick up a bottle of wine, the accused grabbed him and began to stab him with a screwdriver.”

The fight spilled out of the house and continued on the street outside.

A schoolgirl passing by the scene with her mother and grandmother saw Johnston strike Carruthers repeatedly on the head with the screwdriver.

Ms Bradshaw said the girl’s mother did not see a screwdriver but saw Johnston and Carruthers struggling. She also noticed that the complainer was covered in blood.

He asked her: “Could you please go into the living room and get my eye back?” but she pointed out that his eye was still in its socket.

The police and an ambulance were called and Carruthers was taken to Wishaw General Hospital, where he was found to have multiple superficial injuries to his scalp and face.

He had also suffered an injury to his thigh and his eye was badly bruised.

Following treatment, Carruthers discharged himself from hospital.

A witness identified Johnston in an identity parade as the man who carried out the attack.

However, Carruthers refused to tell police who attacked him. When Johnston was cautioned and charged by officers, he made no reply.

His solicitor, Andy Brophy, told Sheriff Joyce Powrie on Monday that his client suffered from depression and receives incapacity benefit.

Johnston, he added, was also on a methadone programme.

Given Johnston’s criminal record, he recognised that it was not necessary for Sheriff Powrie to call for reports but he nevertheless asked her to do so. He pointed out that Johnston’s last conviction for violence had been in 1999 and everything since that date had involved a breach of probation or a misuse of drugs.

Johnston pleaded guilty to a charge of assaulting Carruthers to his severe injury. Sheriff Powrie deferred sentence for reports until February 25 and granted bail but pointed out that all sentencing options would be open on that date.