A man almost died during a frantic two-minute ambulance trip after being stabbed in a terrifying attack at an Elgin home.

Garry Collie needed a transfusion of three litres of blood when he arrived at Dr Gray’s Hospital following the incident last year.

Paramedics applied constant pressure to his injured leg as blood gushed from a severed main artery on the way there.

Two of his attackers were jailed yesterday at the High Court in Livingston, where it emerged that the 33-year-old “would have died” if not for the heroic efforts of the crew.

Sieann Smith was locked up for four years and her then boyfriend, Callum Gilchrist imprisoned for 21 months.

The court heard that Mr Collie dropped in on the pair after hearing music coming from Gilchrist’s home in Morriston Road on August 15.

He later told police that they looked “out of their faces” on drugs, but decided to sit down and roll a cigarette.

Gilchrist then approached him wielding a six-inch knife and accused Mr Collie of robbing him a year earlier.

Smith, 25, seized a white knife from the kitchen as Mr Collie attempted to calm Gilchrist down.

However, as her partner threatened to cut off his ear, Smith plunged her knife five inches into Mr Collie’s left leg.

The couple’s friend, Stephen Gauld, was also present and repeatedly punched the complainer as he left the house.

Gilchrist followed the wounded man and urged him “don’t die”, as he offered a towel to help stop the bleeding.

A passerby phoned 999 while a neighbour used a child’s skipping rope as a tourniquet to try and staunch the flow of blood from Mr Collie’s leg.

Smith admitted stabbing Mr Collie to the danger of his life, while 26-year-old Gilchrist pleaded guilty to holding a knife against the victim’s face and threatening to cut off his ear, before “repeatedly cutting him on the face and hand”.

Gauld, 25, admitted repeatedly punching Mr Collie on the head and body but was admonished having spent five months behind bars awaiting yesterday’s court appearance.

Defence solicitors blamed drugs for the behaviour of the three accused, but said all had expressed “genuine remorse”.

Judge Lord Kinclaven told Smith: “Your past was described as a troubled one, and I accept that, but your use of illicit substances does not excuse your action.”