A MAN has been accused leaving two other men scarred for life following an alleged knife attack in Ayr – and of robbing a third.

John Steven pleaded not guilty to accusations that he assaulted the pair in the town’s Wills Gardens on October 22 last year.

The 46-year-old is accused of repeatedly striking each of the men on the body with a knife to their severe injury and permanent disfigurement.

The Crown also alleges that on the same date Mr Steven brandished a knife at a third man at an underpass near the Lidl supermarket in King Street.

That charge accuses him of holding the knife to the other man’s throat, threatening him, demanding cash from him and then robbing him of a sum of money.

Mr Steven faces a fourth charge of being possession of a knife at both Lidl and Wills Gardens.

The accused, of HMP Kilmarnock, pleaded not guilty to all four charges when he appeared via video link during a brief hearing at Ayr Sheriff Court.

He will be brought to court to face the charges again at a later date.

All accused persons reported in the Ayr Advertiser are considered innocent unless they are later found, or admit to being, guilty.