AN angry man who lashed out and stabbed his brother in the back has paid the price with a nine-month jail term.

Timothy Maxwell, 22, phoned his mother asking her to go and get brother Liam before he killed him. He later phoned for an ambulance and told police he was responsible for the knifing, Burnley Crown Court heard.

Sentencing Maxwell, who has no previous convictions, Judge Raymond Bennett said what he had done was 'wicked,' and right-minded thinking members of the public would think Maxwell ought to go to custody.

Maxwell, of King Street, Bacup, was recently cleared by a jury of unlawfully wounding Liam Maxwell, with intent to do him grievous bodily harm. He admitted another charge of unlawful wounding, last November.

Roger Green, prosecuting, told the court the defendant had allowed his brother to stay the night at his flat at Cloughfold. Both had earlier been to see their mother and Maxwell took a knife from her kitchen 'for protection.'

An argument developed and Maxwell phoned his mother, asking her to collect Liam. Liam Maxwell refused to leave, the defendant picked up the knife and stabbed Liam once in the back. When police later arrived, Maxwell owned up to what he had done. A knife was found under a mattress.

Mr Green said Mr Maxwell was taken to hospital, where he was found to have suffered a wound one centimetre away from his spine. He had now made a full recovery.

When the defendant was arrested, he told police he had taken five tamazepam tablets and had done what he did to give his brother a 'warning' and to stop him making threats. Maxwell added he had just 'snapped.'

Mark Rhind, defending, said Maxwell came from a "very troubled and difficult" background, but the trouble was not of his own making. In the past Liam Maxwell had made suicide attempts and as the two brothers were growing up, their relationship had been 'violent and extreme.'

Mr Rhind went on: "He bitterly regrets what he has done to his brother. He bitterly regrets the close bond that he felt there was between them has been broken. He hopes to build bridges between himself and his brother in the future."

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