VIOLENT yob from Salisbury has been jailed for ten years after going into a house and stabbing a man 11 times as he lay in bed.

Dorchester Crown Court heard that Scott MacKenzie, 23, was involved in an argument with a group of people outside a kebab shop in Gillingham on March 10, and left a man with a broken jaw.

He then went and got a knife that he used to threaten another member of the group into telling him where his friends were staying before going to the unlocked house and walking in.

The victim, who had nothing to do with the earlier altercation, was asleep in bed with his girlfriend, when MacKenzie, of The Croft, Lower Road, stabbed him through the duvet, leaving him with serious injuries to his legs and hands.

The court was told MacKenzie had 22 previous convictions which were “continuously getting worse”.

He was found guilty of two counts of causing grievous bodily harm, one with intent, and one of false imprisonment on Friday following a five-day trial.

The sentencing also took into account a charge of causing actual bodily harm and a public order offence relating to an incident in Salisbury, to which he had pleaded guilty before the trial.

DS Luke Willcock of Weymouth CID described the incident as a “ferocious attack”.

He said: “I’m happy with the sentence; it sends out a very strong message, in particular to persons who are under the influence of alcohol who go out to pick fights and end up causing these serious injuries. To enter the house of someone who had nothing to do with the original fight and to stab him 11 times is quite horrendous.”