A MAN has been locked up for slashing someone he claimed he had known since they were six.

Liam Miller, 20, pleaded guilty last month to assault, striking the man on the head with a knife and repeatedly punching and kicking him on the head and body.

It was to the victim's severe injury and permanent disfigurement.

Miller, of Maclean Street, Clydebank, appeared from custody at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on April 9 for sentencing.

Fiscal depute Euan Nicholson said the incident started on a footpath in Clydebank outside a property in Longden Street, just after 11am on July 19, 2022.

There was a dispute between two men and at first, Miller appeared to try to break it up, heard the court.

But then he struck one of the other men to the head with a blade and kicked him on the head and body.

The whole incident lasted around five minutes.

At about 11.25am, the victim called police saying he had been slashed to the face.

Officers found him bleeding heavily.

At 12.15am the next day, police saw Miller with another man dressed in black, who ran off when he spotted the cops.

When cautioned and charged, Miller said: "I didn't use any sort of knife. I would not do that to him. I have known him since I was six."

His victim will be left with a permanent scar.

Defence solicitor Scott Adair said his client had taken a "pragmatic approach".

He said: "It appears there was an earlier argument in the house and Mr Miller's intentions initially were to break up the fight."

Mr Adair added there was some question as to who did what in the incident, but the CCTV "was definitive enough".

Sheriff James Spy said Miller had used a knife to inflict a serious wound and then kicked the man when he was down.

He locked him up for 18 months, backdated to March 12.

A separate case against Miller led to four months in custody. But that will be served simultaneous to the year and a half punishment.

In an incident on July 13, 2023, at Low Crescent, Clydebank, he shouted, swore and engaged in a stand-up fight with a man. He was on two bail orders at the time, one from just days earlier.

He was also in breach of a curfew at the time.