Ayden Dixon, a thug well known to the police in the British city of Leicester has been jailed for nine years following a vicious and unprovoked early morning knife attack on a man he'd never met.

The conviction is in part thanks to video from a public security camera overlooking the crime scene which captured the entire 4 a.m. attack.

In the video, which served as a key piece of evidence in Dixon's jailing, the 23-year-old attacker is seen riding a scooter on the empty street beside the victim as he walks with a group of friends. Dixon is seen pulling his scooter up to the curb then lashing out with a 2-inch blade, puncturing the young man's throat.

The stunned man appears to stagger forward believing; he later told the court he believed he had just been punched. Dixon is then seen making his getaway.

The reason for the attack? Dixon mistook the man for a person he'd fought with earlier the same night.

The stabbing left the victim with a 2-inch deep and 1.5-inch wide wound just millimeters from a main artery. The attack could easily have killed him, the court was told.