A knife attacker who slashed a man in a busy nightclub has been jailed for five years.

Andrew Sutherland, 27, struck Christopher McAuley in Word Up in Greenock, Inverclyde, last December.

A judge heard how the 29-year-old victim was left scarred for life after needing treatment for a neck wound.

Sutherland – a former supermarket worker – was yesterday sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow.

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He had earlier admitted assaulting McAuley to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement and impairment as well as to the danger of his life.

The judge, Lady Stacey, said the jail term would have been six years, but for his guilty plea. The court had earlier heard there had been “minor confrontations” between the pair, who were known to each other, on the club dancefloor.

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Sutherland, of Union Street, Greenock, later claimed he had been defending himself.

Thomas Ross, defending, said Sutherland accepted he had “behaved badly” and realised there were “other ways” to deal with issues he had with McAuley that night