A man ambushed his neighbour outside their apartment building and held him captive while threatening to “slit his throat” during a terrifying two-hour ordeal.
Alfie McCann waited for 26-year-old Lee McGuffie on the morning of April 29, 2024, armed with a hammer and knife.
When McGuffie emerged to leave for work around 8am in Hurlford, Ayrshire, McCann attacked.
The assailant wore a snood partially obscuring his face as he stood near the bins.
He seized his shocked neighbour and forced him back toward the building entrance at knifepoint.
“What is the problem? Alfie, what is wrong?” McGuffie shouted during the initial confrontation.
After a struggle on the path outside, McCann demanded his victim go inside to “talk” with him.
Once inside, McCann forced McGuffie into a bedroom and made him turn around with his hands behind his back.
The attacker then secured his victim using handcuffs and cable ties, causing McGuffie severe pain as circulation was cut off.
McGuffie appeared at the High Court in Glasgow
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The assault escalated when McCann wrapped duct tape around McGuffie’s mouth and nose. The victim’s panic over being unable to breathe prompted McCann to remove some of the tape.
McGuffie offered money from a drawer, hoping to end the attack.
Instead, McCann ordered him to the floor and used additional cable ties to bind his legs.
Prosecutor Anna Chisholm told the High Court in Glasgow: “The victim felt threatened, scared and confused by McCann’s conduct.”
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Throughout the ordeal, McCann wielded both the knife and hammer as weapons to intimidate his captive neighbour.
When McGuffie asked about the motive for the attack, McCann claimed it was because the couple had accused him of being “a beast.”
This troubled McGuffie, who realised McCann must have been eavesdropping on private conversations in their apartment.
The court heard McCann had relocated to the building less than a year before the incident. He quickly made false complaints about his upstairs neighbours allegedly “drilling holes” into his apartment.
Police later discovered disturbing evidence of McCann’s surveillance attempts. Officers found a ladder extending to a makeshift hatch cut into his ceiling, along with a large grinder equipped with a diamond cutting blade.
Miss Chisholm explained: “On the ceiling was a makeshift hatch which appeared that it may lead into the couple’s flat above.”
The ceiling had been partially cut through, but hadn’t breached the floor above.
McGuffie’s partner received an alert from their Ring doorbell while at work, showing footage of McCann attacking her boyfriend with a knife. She immediately called emergency services.
When police arrived and got no response, they entered McCann’s unlocked apartment before returning to McGuffie’s door.
They spotted him through frosted glass, “crashing” to the bottom of the stairs.
As officers threatened forced entry, McCann held the knife to his victim’s neck and warned: “If they come through the door, you will get it first, then they will get it.”
Firearms officers were summoned, and a cordon established. McCann eventually released McGuffie, cut the restraints, and surrendered.
McGuffie sustained scratches, cuts and bruises but declined hospital treatment.
McCann, now of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, had been on bail, but was remanded in custody.
He admitted abduction and assault charges at Glasgow’s High Court.
The 49-year-old awaits sentencing next month, with Lord Arthurson warning of a “substantial” prison term.
