Spurned 85-year-old jailed for stabbing woman

A 85-year-old man who stabbed a 74-year-old woman after she rejected his romantic advances has been jailed for two years and eight months.

A court heard how loner Joseph McGorman became obsessed with Benedicta McLean, who had befriended him.

But when Mrs McLean told him she was married and did not need his affections McGorman lay in wait at her Edinburgh home and stabbed her. Ms McLean was scarred for life in the knife attack.



Passing sentence at the High Court in Dumbarton, judge Lord Pentland said the gravity of the offence meant he had no option but to jail McGorman - despite his age.

The court had been told McGorman had planned to slit Mrs McLean's throat and then throw himself off the Forth Road Bridge, but his victim fought back and survived the attack.

When police arrested him nearby a short time after the attack on 14 October, McGorman told them: "You can push a person too far. You can only take so much."