A teenager who almost killed his friend when he suddenly pulled a knife during a supposed fist-fight in a children's play park has been jailed for nine years.
Scott Bruce, 18, had been released from custody just a week before the attack after lodging an appeal against an 18 month sentence for an earlier assault - an appeal which he later abandoned.
Sending him to detention, Judge Lord Malcolm told Bruce: "A jury has convicted you of a pre-meditated and cold-blooded knife attack on an unarmed man.
"But for expert emergency surgery Ryan Stewart would have lost his life from loss of blood."
Lord Malcolm said the vicious stabbing in a play park next to Aberdeen's Persley Crescent was an illustration of the way knife crime had become "a scourge on our society."
Bruce was found guilty, after trial, of attempted murder.
When he appeared for sentence at the High Court in Edinburgh on Tuesday, Bruce’s defence advocate said he still insisted his innocence.
The trial heard how the two friends fell out over a motorbike last November 12.
Bruce later phoned Mr Stewart, telling him: "Get down to the park and see what is going to happen to you."
By the time Mr Stewart arrived at the play-park, a large crowd had gathered expecting to see the fight.
Mr Stewart, also 18, told the trial: "I thought it was going to be a rumble, just a fight."
He said he expected only fists to be used, then felt a blow. He pulled up his jumper to see "lots of blood spurting out" and found he was struggling to breathe.
Doctors found four stab wounds, two of them near his heart.
The court heard today that in October last year Bruce was sentenced to 18 months detention for assault. He did not contest the conviction but appealed against the length of the sentence and was freed on November 5.
On December 17 Bruce was given a sentence totalling 20 months for attempted theft and breaching an earlier probation order and abandoned his appeal. He also has other convictions for violence and carrying weapons.
Lord Malcolm told him: "It is clear you are a lawless and dangerous person. On your release from custody special measured will be needed for the protection of the public."
The judge made an order extending the time Bruce will spend on licence and under supervision after the end of his sentence by five years - warning him that if he did not behave he could still be locked up in 2023.
Mr Borthwick said: "He still does not accept he is the person responsible for the assault on Ryan Stewart. He has been consistent in his denials that he is the person responsible for this offence."
The lawyer also suggested the argument between the two youths might have been sorted out more easily if it were not for the crowd of on-lookers.
