Attacker jailed over knife in eye

The knife was left embedded in Michal Ciesla's eye

A "wicked" attacker who almost killed a man in Aberdeen when he embedded a knife in his eye has received a lifetime restriction order.

Mark Mearns, 35, who has 140 convictions, stabbed 28-year-old Polish national Michal Ciesla in the face.

Mearns had admitted assault to severe injury, permanent disfigurement and the danger of life after the attack in the city centre last August.

A judge gave him a minimum sentence of three years and three months in jail.

Fortunately Mr Ciesla has made a miraculous recovery Lord Uist

He was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh, where Lord Uist described x-rays of the attack as "sickening".

Lord Uist told Mearns: "I find it difficult to understand how anyone can be so wicked."

The lifelong restriction order will mean that Mearns will continue to be supervised after his release.

The victim had been trying to help a man get cash back from Mearns's girlfriend, a prostitute, who had refused him sex.

Ciesla was racially abused and then attacked with a butter knife from a pub.

Advocate depute John Scullion said police and ambulance personnel found Mr Ciesla lying on the ground and passers-by trying to help him.

'Contributed nothing'

"They saw that his face was bleeding and that the handle of a knife was protruding from the area of his left eye," he said.

Doctors who carried out emergency surgery to remove the knife said his life had been in danger.

The victim was stabbed in the city centre in August last year

Mearns was charged with attempted murder but admitted the reduced charge.

Solicitor advocate Iain Paterson, defending, said Mearns wanted to stop his heroin-addicted girlfriend from selling herself on the streets.

He said: "Mearns had not gone out that particular evening with the intention of getting into a fight or trouble. He had not gone out carrying any weapon."

Lord Uist said: "You have contributed nothing to society and have been a burden for most of your life.

"Fortunately Mr Ciesla has made a miraculous recovery.

"I have seen a copy of an x-ray photograph showing the knife inside the head of your victim and protruding from the side of his nose. It can be described only as sickening to look at."