By Eric King-
A man has been jailed after stabbing a man for sending a facebook request to his girlfriend. Ross Hunter told Aaron Hogan: “I am going to kill you,” before chasing him along Cliffe Lane West in Baildon and delivering a blow with a kitchen knife as he climbed a gate to get away.
Hunter, 26, of Sissons Road, Middleton, Leeds, was furious after Mr Hogan sent his girlfriend a facebook request, Bradford Crown Court heard today. Hunter pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to unlawfully and maliciously wounding Mr Hogan with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm and possessing a kitchen knife as an offensive weapon. The court heard he had previous convictions for robbery and assault.
Mr Hogan was set upon whilst waiting at a bus stop at about midday on October 31 last year when Hunter got out of the passenger seat of a Ford Fiesta. He pointed at Mr Hogan, threatened to kill him and pursued him across a garden and down the side of a house.
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Mr Hogan ran for his life and was climbing a high gate blocking his escape route when Hunter caught up with him and stabbed him. Jurors heard how Mr Hogan dropped on to a shed roof. He heard what he thought was the sound of dripping water and realised it was his blood. He was in immediate pain and collapsed in the street after banging on a house door to raise the alarm.
The horrifying attack occurred in full view members of the public, including a girl who burst into tears. Hogan was at the time unaware of why the threats were being issued. Mr Doswell said that Mr Hogan just wanted to chat to the young woman, who was a previous girlfriend, but the defendant got “the wrong end of the stick.” He spent eight days in hospital, lost half of his liver and needed a blood transfusion. He developed fluid on his lungs and was left with a 12 inch scar. Hogan was the former boyfriend of the girl and wanted to reunite with her, but Hunter was worried he was trying to chat her up and get with her.
The attack of rage and jealousy has now at least temporarily cost him his girlfriend since he will be in jail without her . Hogan said in his personal statement that he had suffered nightmares and been unable to work. He had become “a nervous wreck” who was ”always looking over my shoulder,” he said.
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“It was one incident, with one blow, from a man who since 2011 seems to have moved away from any offending,” Mr Hampton said.
The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, said of the stabbing: “It involved the use of a weapon with the intention to cause the sort of harm that inevitably arises from a chest wound.”
But Hunter deserved full credit for his early guilty plea, cutting the jail term from its double figures starting point.
“Any less would be an offence to the victim and society. Any more would be unfair to you,” the judge said.
He warned Hunter that if he committed any more similar offences he could be facing life imprisonment.
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