Thug who stabbed Sunday Mail reporter faces prison term

Oct 12 2008 By Grant Mccabe

A THUG caught on film stabbing a Sunday Mail undercover investigator is facing jail.

Robert Graham, 27, knifed our man in broad day light during an unprovoked attack.

His victim had just left the home of late crime boss Arthur Thompson's son Billy as part of a Sunday Mail drugs probe.

He was wearing a secret camera that captured the attack in Glasgow's Provanmill area.

Serial offender Graham was remanded in custody after admitting the attack at the city's sheriff court last week.

Sidekick Joseph Greig, 34, was jailed for five months after admitting assaulting the investigator before he was stabbed.

Sheriff Robert Anthony QC said a long sentence was on the cards when Graham - who has convictions for violence and theft - returns to court later this month.

The victim had gone to Thompson's house on June 18 to buy heroin as part of a Sunday Mail probe into the drug dealing business.

Graham and his gang had laid siege to the house to try to wreck Thompson's deals and rob addicts.

As a result, Thompson had no heroin to sell the Sunday Mail man who was approached and grabbed by Graham's pal Greig when he left the house.

Prosecutor Willie MacKay said: "Graham took hold of him and then produced a knife.

"During this struggle, he stabbed the man on the arm around the elbow." The Sunday Mail man managed to break free and fled to safety.

After the attack, CCTV footage showed Graham making "repeated jabbing motions" towards Greig.

Police arrived on the scene later and found the knife in a nearby garden.

Graham's lawyer said that his client downed a cocktail of Valium and alcohol before the incident.

Liam O'Donnell said: "He appears to be shocked at his behaviour in seeing this in a cold and sober light."

Scores of readers flooded the Sunday Mail after the attack naming Graham and Greig as the culprits