Five years for football slasher

The court heard of McAusland's violent record

A man who slashed two Celtic fans as they celebrated a 5-0 win over Dundee has been jailed for five years.

One of Scott McAusland's victims needed 80 stitches in his face wounds and is permanently disfigured.

The other had 40 stitches put in a neck wound.

McAusland, 31, from Haghill in Glasgow, admitted attacking both men.

The High Court in Glasgow heard that Andrew Hamilton and Stephen McCarron had been celebrating their team's win at Parkhead on 3 April 1999.

McAusland set about them after they left a bar in Dennistoun.

The woman who put the knife in his hand already knew he was drunk and argumentative

Solicitor-advocate James Keegan

Advocate depute Mr Norman Ritchie, prosecuting, said: "As they left the accused also left the pub and was arguing with a woman he was with.

"McAusland made a remark to both men who chose to ignore it and walked away."

He said that the woman handed McAusland an object, believed to be a Stanley knife, and the accused used it to slash both men.

Mr Hamilton, 25, had a deep wound across his cheek, through his nostril and across his upper lip.

'Horrendous attack'

Solicitor-advocate James Keegan, defending, said that McAusland, a gardener with Glasgow City Council parks department, accepted it was an "horrendous" attack.

He said: "The woman who put the knife in his hand already knew he was drunk and argumentative.

"She made the situation immeasurably worse.

"Her intervention caused a very serious situation for both the victims and the accused."

McAusland, a father-of-two, has previously served a jail sentence for violent attacks several years ago, the court heard.