Man stabbed as children watched

Laurie Falconer took valium tablets the night before the attack

A woman has been jailed for three years and four months for stabbing a man in front of children in Arbroath.

Laurie Falconer, 21, attacked her victim near a play park after telling him: "I don't care if I stab you in front of all these bairns."

Falconer, who is a policewoman's daughter, repeatedly wounded Joseph Duffy on 7 July, weeks after receiving a fiscal fine for another assault.

She then apologised to a woman in the park with her grandchild for swearing.

Falconer, also known as Moore, earlier admitted assaulting Mr Duffy to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement and to the danger of his life.

The High Court in Edinburgh was told that the evening before the attack Falconer had taken valium tablets.

Mr Duffy had left the house in the afternoon because they had been arguing, but as he walked along a pathway towards Parkview Gardens, Arbroath, he heard her shouting after him.

You did this in front of children and not far from a children's play area Lord Menzies

Falconer then returned to the house, picked up a large kitchen knife and walked towards him shouting, "I'll do it."

She ran past the busy children's play area and stabbed him in the back, elbow and the chest.

About eight children, all aged between eight and 13 years old, witnessed the assault to varying degrees.

Falconer went back home with the knife, washed it, then hid it beneath the floorboards of another house.

When police arrived Falconer told officers: "He did not think I would do it. He will get it again when he gets out."

Mr Duffy was taken to Dundee's Ninewells hospital where the chest wound was found to have caused a punctured lung.

A doctor said the injury would have been life threatening if he had not received medical attention.

Drug addiction

Lord Menzies told Falconer that she had committed a very serious assault. He said: "What is worse it involved an element of premeditation.

"What also, in my view, makes it worse is that you did this in front of children and not far from a children's play area."

The judge said he would have jailed her for five years for the offence, but her sentence would be reduced to take account of her guilty plea.

Lord Menzies was earlier told that Falconer had several previous convictions and had been jailed before.

However, an earlier assault was disposed of on 21 May under the controversial fiscal fine system, which diverts offenders away from court.

Defence counsel Gavin Anderson said that Falconer came from a respectable background but had been gripped by drug addiction.

She started taking cannabis aged 11 and had moved on to taking heroin by the time she was 17, although she was not using the Class A drug at the time of the offence.