Man slashed OAP's throat

A man who slashed the throat of a 79-year-old man in an unprovoked attack has been jailed for 13 years.

James Cannon attacked David Emmitt with a craft knife while the pensioner rested on a concrete bollard, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

Mr Emmitt - who had been walking back to his home in Fazakerley, Liverpool - needed a life-saving blood transfusion and emergency surgery to repair two jugular veins, said Christopher Stables, prosecuting.

Motorist Robert Smith was rewarded £500 by the judge for wrestling Cannon to the ground and detaining him until the police arrived at the scene on wasteland near the Black Bull pub, in Walton Vale, Liverpool.

'Truly appalling'

Mr Emmitt - who had spent his life nursing his mother and invalid sister until her death - is still in hospital following the attack on 28 March.

Jailing 31-year-old Cannon, of Knowsley Road, Bootle, Judge John Roberts told him: "Your victim will never get over the shock of being attacked in that way.

"It was a truly appalling offence of attempted murder, it was a wicked unprovoked offence which involved you running up to a complete stranger, a small and frail man, in a public place and cutting his throat with a craft knife."

Cannon was jailed for 12 years for attempted murder and a further 12 months for wounding Lee Murphy in Southport in September 2002.

He had admitted both offences.