A man who carried out four apparently random knife attacks over two days has been found guilty of two attempted murders and two assault charges.
Edward Coyle, 50, had denied the stabbings which took place in Glasgow’s Merchant City and in the Gorbals.
The High Court in Glasgow heard he had tried to kill a 58-year-old woman on her way to a cleaning job, and also a 44-year-old man walking to to his car.
Coyle will remain at the State Hospital under an interim compulsion order.
He is receiving treatment at Carstairs for a mental disorder.
‘Could not breathe’
The jury was told that Coyle had approached Margaret Campbell as she was walking in Dixon Blazes industrial estate on 17 March 2016.
She said: “As I went onto the road, I was attacked… stabbed six times and suffered a punctured lung.”
She described the stabbing being “so quick” she could not recall seeing a weapon.
“I realised something was not right – I could not breathe,” she said.
“There was blood running.”
The court heard that Coyle had carried out three other knife attacks on strangers two days earlier.
‘Puddle of blood’
Project manager Paul Sweeney, who was walking to his car in the Gorbals, said Coyle came at him with “some purpose”, and struck him in the chest.
Student Fiona Robertson, 22, described being assaulted near Glasgow’s Merchant City.
The 22-year-old managed to push Coyle off before he walked away.
Supermarket worker Alberto Sanchez, 29, said he was left standing in a “puddle of blood” after he knifed in the arm earlier that day in the Gorbals.
Another man had originally been held for the three earlier attacks.
He was freed following the assault on Ms Campbell. It led to Coyle being detained for all four crimes.
Judge Lord Armstrong adjourned the case until August.