Thug who attempted to kill man in Blackburn and boasted about it on WhatsApp jailed for 24 years

A thug who attempted to kill a man and then boasted about it on voice notes to friends has today been jailed for 24 years.

At 5.37pm on 26th April last year, we received a call from the North-West Ambulance Service who were treating a man with a stabbed wound to the chest outside a property in Swift Close in Blackburn.

Whilst enroute, they came across a man with blood around his face and head - later identified as the defendant Scott Dagg - on Barbara Castle Way. He was swaying on the pedestrian island and talking incoherently.

Dagg was arrested on suspicion on suspicion of attempted murder and later released on conditional bail while our enquiries continued.

The knife was recovered from outside the property in Swift Close wrapped in a towel.

The victim – a man in his 30s – was treated at hospital for stab wounds. He later discharged himself and did not provide a statement or support the prosecution.

Following further enquiries, Dagg was re-arrested on suspicion of attempted murder on 28th May of last year.

Minutes before his arrest, Dagg was seen by CCTV camera operators discarding an object on top of an electricity box on Mincing Lane in Blackburn.

That item was recovered by officers and transpired to be a mobile phone.

That phone was examined by officers, who recovered voice notes from that phone where Dagg talked about going around to the property in Swift Close with the express intent of killing the victim as revenge from an altercation the pair had had days earlier.

In one he said: “I’m just gutted that I didn’t actually kill him.”

Following consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, Dagg, 43, of no fixed address, was charged with attempted murder.

A jury at Preston Crown Court unanimously found him guilty of attempted murder following a trial in December.

He returned to the same court on Wednesday (6th May) and was sentenced.

DS Cheryl Taylor, from Blackburn CID, said: “Scott Dagg is an extremely dangerous individual who attended the victim’s address with the express purpose of causing him fatal harm.

“While he was on bail for the extremely serious offence of attempted murder, he then sent voice notes to his friends boasting about what he had done and expressing regret that the victim hadn’t died.

“I welcome the sentence handed down today which reflects the serious nature of the offending.

“I want to place on record my thanks to the investigation team for their diligence and tenacity in securing this conviction and substantial sentence.”