A VIOLENT thug who stabbed a former soldier eight times during a brutal attack has been jailed for seven years.

David Gallagher, 25, wounded ex-squaddie Christopher Boyle using a six-inch kitchen knife strapped to his hand with duct tape.

Mr Boyle was chased into a garden in Faifley as Gallagher repeatedly slashed and stabbed him.

The High Court in Livingston heard previously how Mr Boyle suffered multiple wounds on his legs and body during the terrifying incident.

He needed emergency surgery for abdominal injuries and another operation to repair a kneecap tendon rupture.

A jury heard how he had been left with permanent scars and still had mobility difficulties.

On Wednesday, at the High Court in Edinburgh, judge Lord Burns sent Gallagher to prison and also ordered him to be supervised by the authorities for three years following his release from custody.

He said: "It is clear to me that any sentence which must be imposed upon you must reflect the need for the public to be protected from you.

"I will impose an extended sentence. The custodial part of this sentence will be seven years and the supervisory part will be one of three years."

Read more: Faifley thug David Gallagher found guilty of stabbing

Jurors took just over an hour last month to return a unanimous verdict finding Gallagher, of Clydebank, guilty of a charge assault to severe injury, permanent disfigurement and danger to life.

Sentence had been deferred to Edinburgh for the court to obtain report about Gallagher's character.

The assault took place at garages behind a property in Faifley Road and continued in the garden of a second Faifley Road home.

The court heard Mr Boyle say he was "having a carry on" by climbing on to garage roofs as he walked home with a female friend at around 3am on October 8, 2017 when Gallagher started an argument with them.

The next thing Mr Boyle remembered was waking up in Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital with stab wounds to his torso, buttock, leg and hands.

He said post-traumatic stress disorder he suffered due his time in the Army meant he "blocked out" all memory of stressful situations.

He spent a month on active duty in Afghanistan on patrol with 5 Scots, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.

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The jury heard Mr Boyle told police officers: "I felt him hit me in the stomach towards the left hand side. I then took a step back and he's punched me again to the left-hand side.

"I then punched him. I floored him and stood over him telling him to leave and let us go home.

"He has then punched my leg, but it was agony and I've looked down and seen a knife. He has then stabbed me twice more in the leg.

"At this point I looked down and saw blood on my leg and realised I must have been stabbed in the stomach earlier when I thought he had punched me."

He added: "I started to run towards the white church and I was aware that the guy was chasing me.

"He was shouting that he was going to kill me. I jumped over the fence and used that as a barrier to defend myself."

Police later found someone named Gallagher had booked a taxi to pick him up in Watchmeal Crescent at 3.58am on the morning of the attack and take him to Drumchapel Road, where the accused's girlfriend stayed.

In the days following the incident Gallagher split with his girlfriend, quit his job and changed his address.

Following the guilty verdict it emerged that Gallagher had been sentenced to 12 months in jail in 2012 for assault and robbery.

He was caged for 40 months in November 2014 for assault to severe injury, permanent impairment and danger to life using a hammer.

He was also sentenced to eight months in jail in March 2014 for carrying a machete in public.

On Wednesday, defence solicitor advocate Billy Lavelle told Lord Burns that his client had a good employment record.

Mr Lavelle added: "Before his arrest, he worked on the railways and he has a good work ethic.

“His intention upon being released from prison is to continue his relationship with his girlfriend and to get back into employment and continue to contribute to society."

However, Lord Burns told him that there was no other alternative sentence to custody available.