A MAN has been found guilty of carrying out a brutal murder bid in Galashiels by repeatedly stamping on his victim and wounding him with a knife.

Barry Smart, 34, launched the attack on Michael Ledgerwood after the victim arrived at a house in Beech Avenue with another man.

Mr Ledgerwood, 36, said that when he turned up at the address Smart was there with others and "seemed pretty much OK".

But he told the High Court in Edinburgh that at one point he turned round and he was suddenly hit on the back of the head by Smart.

He said: "I went straight to the floor. He started stamping on me. That's when my memory went a wee bit hazy."

Mr Ledgerwood said that Smart was stamping on his head and side during the assault.

"It was about three or four times until I was knocked out. He obviously kept on stamping until I was knocked out. I was lying flat out," he said.

"I can sort of remember someone saying 'he has had enough, he has had enough Barry'."

He said that after the attack he was helped to a car and taken to Borders General Hospital.

Mr Ledgerwood said: "I was really dazed. I knew I had a kicking, but I wasn't aware of my face."

Advocate depute Graeme Jessop asked him what was wrong with his face and he replied: "It had been slashed open twice down my face and my neck across my throat and windpipe."

He said he was transferred to St John's Hospital in Livingston, in West Lothian, and stitches and sutures were put in.

The left hand side of his face is now numb following the attack on him.

Smart had denied attempting to murder Mr Ledgerwood on December 12 last year, but was convicted of the offence by a jury today.

During the assault he repeatedly stamped on his head and body and repeatedly struck him on the head and neck with a knife to his severe injury and to the danger of his life.

Mr Jessop told jurors that forensic science evidence of blood staining on Smart's clothes and shoes contributed to showing that it was Smart who was involved in the assault.

Defence counsel Sean Templeton told the court that Smart had never been to jail before.

Mr Jessop said that Smart did have previous convictions, some from courts in England.

The judge, Lord Woolman, remanded Smart in custody and deferred sentence for the preparation of a background report. 

He is due to be sentenced next month at the High Court in Glasgow.