Published date: 26 October 2015 |
Published by: Staff reporterRead more articles by Staff reporterEmail reporter
A FORMER council worker could not remember an incident with a knife when he threatened to kill one woman and then burst into the room of a man brandishing the knife.
During the struggle that followed, the man was stabbed in the face and received a slight chin wound.
But defendant Stephen Leonard Jones, 55, got more than he bargained for because he was punched and disarmed, and fell to the floor unconscious.
Jones, of no fixed abode but who had been living in multiple occupancy accommodation in Wrexham, admitted affray after a charge of attempting to inflict GBH was dropped.
Jones, whose life was said to have deteriorated after he formerly held a responsible position with a local authority, was jailed for 14 months at Mold Crown Court.
Judge Niclas Parry told Jones that on September 13 he was “out of control” of his senses and with a knife “looking for trouble”.
It was an act of revenge after he had simply been told to be quiet in his room.
He had threatened to kill a woman resident for a petty reason and later entered another resident’s room brandishing a knife.
In the ensuing struggle, a man was stabbed in the face.
Fortunately, he suffered a small puncture wound.
The judge said Jones was “hopelessly drunk” at the time and had four previous convictions for assault.
“Anyone who brandishes a weapon and uses it to make threats and cause injury must go into custody,” he said.
Prosecutor David Mainstone said police were called to Alexander Road in Wrexham at about 9.45pm on September 13.
The defendant had been living there for a matter of days.
That night he asked one of the female residents for a knife to do some cooking.
He was drunk but she took the view that he was alright to do some simple cooking and gave him a five- inch knife with a serrated blade.
Jones went to the kitchen, she later heard him cry out and when she went to investigate saw he had cut his hand.
She provided him with a bandage but he later went to her room and blamed her for the injury.
“It’s your fault. It’s your knife – I am going to kill you so that you know what it feels like,” he told her.
He called her names as she locked the door and he was heard shouting and screaming in his room.
One of the male residents twice asked him to be quiet.
Jones remained quiet for a short time but then burst into that resident’s room where he was sitting with his father.
Mr Mainstone said the victim acted swiftly in trying to disarm Jones who raised the knife.
During the scuffle the point of the knife caught him to the chin.
As Jones motioned with the knife towards him, the victim’s father grabbed his wrist and punched him three times to the face.
The defendant fell, hit his head on a table and was rendered unconscious.
Arrested and interviewed, he made no comment.
Ceri Evans, defending, said her client had no recollection of the events, partly because of the alcohol he had taken and partly because of the injury he received when he lost consciousness.
He accepted the prosecution case against him, was deeply remorseful and sorry for his actions.
Jones had previously had a senior post in the local authority but took a redundancy package because of his stress and binge drinking.
“There’s been a very sad decline in his life as a result of alcohol,” she explained.
He had time to reflect upon his actions while on remand and she said the court could consider a constructive alternative to custody.
see - http://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/154147/drunken-knifeman-in-wrexham-hostel-rampage-jailed.aspx
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