A COKED-UP home invader has been caged for leaving a man in his 60s scarred for life after stabbing him in the face then leaping out an upstairs window one Sunday morning.

Dale Ferguson, 27, was given a six year sentence when he returned to court to learn his fate last week after admitting to the ‘appalling’ behaviour during a drug-fuelled rampage.

He admitted assault to severe injury and permanent disfigurement back in March after repeatedly stabbing the 63-year-old when he stormed the couple’s home one Sunday morning cranked up on cocaine, speed and Valium.

The Springside man, now residing in HMP Kilmarnock, also admitted causing Stronsay Court residents fear and alarm by entering three homes uninvited, brandishing a knife, stabbing a mattress and trying to grab an ornamental sword.

Ferguson was due to return to court last month – with sentence deferred due to criminal justice social work reports not being ready.

We previously reported that both the victim and intruder were taken to Crosshouse Hospital back in November 17.

The Procurator Fiscal told the court the victim’s 62-year-old wife was in the kitchen at 11am when she suddenly heard a noise, then saw Ferguson running toward the back door of the property before barging in.

Her husband hurried into the room after she shouted ‘there’s a man in the kitchen’.

When he entered the room his wife advised of the knife the intruder had taken from the worktop, before he pre-emptively punched Ferguson in the face.

The court heard he ‘didn’t react at all’.

Ferguson then launched into his frenzied knife attack, stabbing the man in his face next to his left eye as he tried to wrestle with the assailant before he was stabbed on the shoulder area of his back.

Ferguson then began to strike the top of the worktop with the knife before running to the front door but found it was locked.

The couple took the opportunity to try to leave, as he went upstairs and started to repeatedly stab the mattress.

He discarded the knife and jumped out the upstairs window landing in the garden – and was then seen running across the road into another property.

The court heard Ferguson’s shirt was covered in blood and he was described as ‘under the influence of something’. He later tried to remove an ornamental sword from inside another property before collapsing to the floor.

Ferguson’s defence solicitor said his client’s behaviour ‘could only be described as appalling’, and he had no recollection of the ‘reprehensible’ events.

The court heard he recalled taking cocaine but had no memory of benzodiazepine [Valium] or amphetamines.

Sheriff Alistair Watson deferred sentencing for reports with Ferguson remanded in custody.

When he was led from custody last week he was given a six year sentence for assault to severe injury – four years behind bars and two years under supervision.

He was also given two years imprisonment for the threatening behaviour, which will run together with a total period of four years in custody from December 30 last year.

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