A MUSIC student was scarred for life after being stabbed in the leg with a pair of large nail scissors in a random attack.
Linda MacFarlane thought she had been punched until she noticed blood running down her leg.
Her drunken attacker Kimberly Finnigan, 27, was only caught by an off-duty police sergeant who happened to see the assault.
The stabbing left Miss Mac
Farlane's leg infected and needing stitches, while her attacker was told jail would be a "very real possibility."
Finnigan pled guilty to assault to severe injury and permanent disfigurement.
Miss MacFarlane was listening to music through headphones while walking on Edinburgh's Leith Street.
She was on her way to visit a friend at 4pm on June 5 having recently completed a degree course in music.
She was oblivious to Finnigan until she was standing directly in front of her outside the Capital's John Lewis store.
Unemployed Finnigan stood in the student's way, grabbed her right shoulder and stabbed the outside of her left thigh.
The scissors had a hooked tip and tore through Miss MacFarlane's jeans before plunging into her leg.
The shocked student shouted: "Why did you do that? You don't even know me."
Terrified that the woman would chase after her, Miss MacFarlane managed to run into the nearby St James shopping centre.
She phoned the friend she was supposed to meet, before heading to hospital. Nurses closed the wound with butterfly stitches, but the court heard that her scar would be visible if she wore shorts or swimwear.
An off-duty police sergeant had seen the attack unfold and called his colleagues.
Finnigan carried on walking up towards Princes Street before being caught outside the Balmoral Hotel.
Her defence lawyer Matthew Patrick admitted there was "very little" he could say in her defence.
He said: "Miss Finnigan can remember very little about the incident as she had consumed alcohol that day.
"She has a colourful record. Drugs have been a problem but the constant theme in her background has been alcohol."
He said she had bought the scissors to trim her nails.
He said Finnigan may have mental health issues, but Sheriff Derrick McIntyre was sceptical, suggesting she might be "putting it on."
She was remanded in custody and sentence was deferred for reports to September 16.
The full article contains 393 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
