Two guilty of Bonnybridge murder bid with knife

Corey Taylor and Kevin Kelly were found guilty by a jury at Livingston High Court of attempting to murder a man by stabbing him in Bonnybridge on December 23, 2023.

They chased their victim Craig Campbell with knives and assaulted him to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement and permanent impairment.

The jury found that although Kelly was not present when Taylor inflicted the potentially fatal stab wound, he had acted “in concert” with his co-accused.

They were also convicted of assaulting a second man, Alan Fulton by chasing him while brandishing knives during a drunken, drug-fuelled confrontation in Falkirk the same day.

The charge stated that Kelly had previously evinced “malice and ill will” towards Mr Campbell.

The jury heard that Mr Campbell, who was drunk, had been shouting up at the accused from the street outside a house in Falkirk.

When Mr Campbell left the scene both accused followed him to Bonnybridge where the attack took place.

Two knives were later recovered from the property in Falkirk.

One of the blades had the complainer’s DNA on the cutting edge of the blade and Taylor’s DNA on the handle and the other had Kelly’s DNA on it and his fingerprint on the side of the blade.

Taylor claimed he had acted in defence of himself and his pregnant girlfriend after Mr Campbell had assaulted him by kicking him and threatening him with a broken Buckfast bottle.

However, no broken glass was found at the scene by police investigators to corroborate his version of events.

Mr Campbell, who was stabbed in the abdomen, also had injuries consistent with him trying to parry away the knife.

Taylor, 25, from Falkirk, and Kelly, 27, from Stirling ­– both currently in custody – are due to be sentenced by judge John Morris KC at Edinburgh High Court on July 2.

Taylor, who has been inside institutions more than he has been at liberty, was jailed for four years and three months in March 2018 after he pleaded guilty to assault to severe injury, permanent impairment and danger of life.

Along with two others, he admitted battering 38-year-old Derek Pickering with a hammer leaving his victim facing "life-changing consequences".

In 2021 he admitted assaulting a woman by grabbing her by the throat, leaving his victim fearing for her life.

For that he was handed a custodial sentence of 13 and a half months and made subject to a six-month supervised release order

In April 2023 he was put on a supervised community payback order for 12 months with 75 hours of unpaid work and an electronic tag to remain in his home from 9pm to 7am for 11 weeks for assaulting police and telling officers he would ‘smash’ them and bite their noses off.

Kelly also had a criminal record, the court heard. In 2023 he was jailed for a year and six months for setting fire to a man’s clothing and another male’s rucksack in Stirling.