A MAN was slashed in the face with a Stanley knife in a disturbance at a Dunfermline homeless hostel.

Marc Hamilton, 35, started trouble at the James Bank Hostel when he arrived there, acting aggressively and asking about accommodation.

Hamilton, who had been living at Broomhead Drive, appeared from custody at Dunfermline Sheriff Court, where Sheriff Craig McSherry jailed him for 27 months.

He admitted that on May 12, at the James Bank Hostel, James Street, Dunfermline, he assaulted his victim by attempting to strike him repeatedly with knife, did strike him with a knife, struggled with him and headbutted him, all to his injury.

He also admitted being unlawfully in possession of a knife at the hostel and elsewhere in Dunfermline.

He also breached home curfew bail conditions.

Depute fiscal Alex Kirk said Hamilton had gone to the hostel at 10.50pm and was acting aggressively towards a member of the security staff.

He then took out a knife and began striking a glass window with it before thrusting it towards the face of the complainer, a former resident at the hostel.

The Stanley knife struck the complainer above his nose and blood started coming from the wound. Hamilton then headbutted him.

Defence solicitor Roshni Joshi said her client had a history of heavy drinking and substance misuse.

“On this occasion, he was heavily under the influence of drink and drugs and his memory is very limited of these events,” she added.