A man who chopped off a Dundee pensioner’s hand has been could spend the rest of his life in custody, after a ruling today at the High Court in Glasgow.
Stephen Brisbane, 34, was given a life long restriction of liberty order for attacking wheelchair-bound Sandra McGowan in Charleston on February 14 last year.
He previously pled guilty to maiming Ms McGowan after entering her home on Valentine’s Day before grabbing her wrist and cutting her right hand off with a knife.
He returned to his mother’s house in Dundee, and placed the hand in her freezer. His sister made the gruesome discovery of the severed body part and called police.
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Brisbane claimed that former US president Barack Obama told him to cut off the pensioner’s hand as human bones would cure him of his illness.
The custodial element of his sentence was specified as four years, backdated to February 2018, when he was first arrested for the horrific attack.
This means he will not be eligible for parole until at least 2022.
However, Lady Johanna Johnson warned the sentence imposed is “essentially a life sentence” and there are no guarantees he will ever be released from jail.