Mother hits out at knife man who nearly killed her son

Jun 9 2011 by Chris Clements, Hamilton Advertiser

THE mother of a stabbing victim has told of how her son’s attacker “sneered” as he was led to prison.

Elaine Dodds (38) spoke of the ordeal her 17-year-old son Brian Khan endured after an apparently random knife attack in October last year.

Mark Kane (21) was last week caged for seven years after being convicted of attempted murder.

At the High Court in Edinburgh, Kane – of Gordon Road, Hamilton – was found guilty of assaulting the teen to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement, to the danger of his life and attempting to murder him.

The attack happened in High Blantyre’s Main Street on the evening of October 8, 2010.

Brian was stabbed in the torso twice during the attack, the blade puncturing a lung and just missing a kidney. Kane also attempted to slash the teen’s face.

This week, Mrs Dodds, who lives in Blantyre with Brian, slammed Kane for the attempt on her son’s life.

“Mark Kane had no reason to attack my son, he didn’t even need a confrontation,” said the nurse.

“I don’t think his prison sentence will do anything for him. If anything, it will make him worse.

“He sneered at us as he was being taken down. He was laughing, as if it was a joke, so I don’t think he takes any of this seriously at all.”

The mother told the Advertiser how Brian had been walking home with a 15-year-old friend when he came across Kane and a pal.

She said: “There was a gentleman with a dog, who was walking with Mark Kane, and both were complete strangers to Brian.

“Basically, the man with the dog ran and deliberately bumped into Brian in order to start a confrontation.

“Then Kane attacked him. He stabbed the left side of his back, puncturing his lung, and then the right side of his back, just missing a kidney.

“When he felt the blows, Brian actually thought he’d been punched.

“It wasn’t until Kane tried to slash him across the face and he ducked, that he saw the knife and realised what happened.”

Mrs Dodds explained how Brian told his pal to run, before fleeing and hiding in bushes.

Kane, she said, had continued to pursue him.

Eventually, Brian made it to a nearby house where his mother was called.

Mrs Dodds said: “In court, Mark Kane had claimed some nonsense about the whole incident being over a girl.

“Brian doesn’t even know the girl in question, and had never met Kane. He has been going with the same girl for three years, and the two of them are expecting a baby.

“The whole thing was a fabrication.”

Due to lengthy court dates and numerous appearances, Brian has since lost his place on a training programme for employment.

His mother echoed the sentiments of the public outcry over knife crime following the murder of Reamonn Gormley in Blantyre earlier this year.

More than 10,000 people signed the Advertiser’s ‘Hammer The Knife Thugs’ petition, calling for tougher sentences for carrying a knife.

“I think the whole incident is indicative of what is happening at the moment,” continued Elaine.

“I think the authorities have to come down hard on this behaviour before it gets to the stage where they are attacking someone with a knife.

“Before I was very wary when Brian went out to his friends, but now it is worse. This has affected the whole family.

“He was nearly killed by a total stranger. These were life-threatening injuries, there are no ifs, but, or maybes about it. Brian could have been killed.”

Sentencing Kane last week, Lady Stacey said that he had been convicted of a “very serious crime” and pointed out that he had been assessed as posing a high risk of re-offending.

She ordered that Kane be kept under supervision for a further two years because of the risk to the public.