Mum who stabbed man in Covid lockdown noise complaint at Coatbridge flat jailed

A mother-of-four who stabbed a man in a murder bid during a Covid lockdown confrontation has been jailed for six years.

Gayle Logan wounded her victim after turning up at a neighbour’s home at a block of flats in Coatbridge, in North Lanarkshire, to complain about noise.

Logan, 48, had earlier denied attempting to murder the man at the town’s Pentland Court and claimed self-defence, but was unanimously found guilty of the crime.

She stabbed the victim on the body with a sharp implement resulting in him sustaining a punctured lung in an attack to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement and danger of his life.

A judge at the High Court in Edinburgh told her: “I am conscious you continue to deny your guilt but I have to give effect to the jury’s verdict in sentencing you.”

Judge Simon Collins KC accepted that there had been anti-social behaviour but said that did not allow her to take the law into her own hands.

Defence counsel Geoff Forbes told the court: “The accused’s children were susceptible to noise and there therefore was an understandable reason why she would leave her flat and go to the upstairs flat.”

A coronavirus pandemic lockdown was in place until the end of February and there was no right to be holding parties, said the defence counsel.

Logan’s neighbour had a number of people at her flat that night, including the attack victim. She went to bed but was awakened by a commotion that seemed as if “someone was coming through the door”.

She saw the stabbing victim bleeding heavily and phoned Logan to find out what had occurred.

Logan told the young woman: “He has just bottled me and I stabbed him.”

The man denied attacking Logan and the court heard Logan had a weapon, either silver scissors or a knife during the confrontation.

During her trial, she denied she was armed and maintained that she did not know how the man sustained his injuries.

Mr Forbes said: “She accepts she went to the door. She had a reason for doing that. She accepts there was punching, but denies any weapon.”

The defence counsel said: “The events of February 12, 2021 were clearly tragic, tragic in particular for [the victim].”

He said that although Logan has previous convictions there was only one for assault.

The defence counsel said she was struggling to adjust following her earlier remand in prison but was already going to group sessions for anger management.