Stabbing victim is ‘too scared to leave his home’

THE victim of a knife attack in Edinburgh has admitted he is too scared to leave his home after the ordeal.

Amit Pandya, 35, was stabbed in the back during an assault last year, leaving him physically and emotionally scarred.

He told the Evening News he was so terrified he even flinches if a jogger passes him on the street, while the attack set his life back several years.

He has also hit out at the punishment given to his attackers, former lovers Tammy Bryce and James Walker.

Bryce, 25, of Pilrig Street, Leith, was jailed for nearly four years yesterday at the High Court in Edinburgh. Her co-accused, Walker, of Trafalgar Street, did not show up for sentencing and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.

The incident took place outside a grocer shop in Fountainbridge, during broad daylight, in August last year.

Now more than a year on, Mr Pandya has spoken of his trauma. “It was horrific, I’m terrified for almost every minute of the day,” he said.

“If I’m walking along and hear a jogger come up behind me, I have to turn around with my back against the wall. I’m petrified the whole time.”

In court, judge Lord Pentland heard how 42-year-old Walker made racist remarks towards the victim and accused him of making an “unwelcome advance” towards Bryce, something Mr Pandya denies.

Mr Pandya had gone into a shop when he saw Bryce and Walker inside. Walker approached and grabbed him before headbutting him. The men struggled, bumping into shelves and knocking over goods before the trouble spilled out onto the pavement.

At the start of the incident Bryce was said to be pleading with the men to stop and trying to separate them. But as the pair struggled on the pavement she approached Mr Pandya from behind and stabbed him twice.

A passing cyclist phoned police and trailed Tammy Bryce and James Walker after the assault on Amit Pandya and pointed them out to officers.

Bryce denied stabbing Mr Pandya or having seen a knife when she was detained by police, but after she was released she told a taxi driver that she had stabbed the victim “in the back”. The driver contacted the police after having seen an article about the attack in the Evening News.

Bryce admitted a serious assault on Mr Pandya by repeatedly striking him on the body with a knife. Walker pled guilty to assaulting Mr Pandya by headbutting him.

Mr Pandya said he was disappointed by the result.

“My life’s been ruined because of this. I was ready to take on the family business, now I can barely get the courage to leave the house.”

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