Fishing-knife stabbing: man detained

6:44pm Thursday 17th January 2008

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A fourteen-year-old boy who confronted a teenager over the alleged harassment of his grandparents ended up being stabbed in the neck, a court has heard.

Christopher Caunce got into a fight with the youngster and pulled the weapon - a fishing type knife - from his pocket.

And at the time, he was on a community order for an offence of arson.

Caunce, aged 18, of Preston Road, Clayton-le-Woods, pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding and possessing an offensive weapon.

A judge at Preston Crown Court sentenced him to twenty months detention.

The stabbing took place on August 22 last year in the Buckshaw Hall Close area of Astley Village. The victim was hanging out with friends that evening, planning a camping trip.

At around 10.30pm he saw Caunce. He allegedly knew him as someone who had been kicking a football against his grandparents' window a few weeks earlier.

"The teenager thought the defendant had been harassing them," said Mr Martin Hackett, prosecuting.

"He went and challenged the defendant about those actions, asking him what he was playing at, to do that to his grandparents."

The pair stood face to face, remonstrating with each other. The defendant threw a punch, hitting the boy's mouth and then both started fighting.

Mr Hackett told the court "It seems that blows were landed by both young men. The boy accepts throwing a few punches himself.

"During the course of that fight, the boy describes feeling a sharp pain to his neck, but did not know the cause at that time.

"The defendant had been seen to pull an object from his right-hand trouser pocket and grip it fully in his hand. A small part of a blade was sticking out. The defendant then used a stabbing action to the left side of the boy's neck, hitting him in the centre of the neck".

The victim was taken to the Royal Preston Hospital. He had a wound, half a centimetre by half a centimetre, to the left side of the neck. There was no evidence of injury of the internal structures.

Caunce told police the victim had first swung at him. He denied ever having a knife or using one.

The defendant had previous convictions that included an arson offence, for which he received a referral order in March last year. That sentence was later varied on August 7 - just a couple of week before the stabbing - to a community rehabilitation order.

Mr Ian Dacre, defending, said Caunce had behaved in an anti social manner in the past. Such behaviour had resulted in him being ejected from his family home in late 2006.

"He had been hanging around with a group of juveniles of the same age, often encouraging him into anti social behaviour."

Mr Dacre claimed that social services went on to "wash their hands" of Caunce following more anti social behaviour. He ended up homeless, sleeping in a tent for about three weeks.

Counsel said the defendant felt intimidated at the time of the wounding, because the younger boy was with a larger group of friends.

Mr Dacre added: "He seeks to put some blame on the boy, about the way it started, but he realises he was the person who was wholly out of order.

"He wishes to express his apology to the victim for his behaviour and to express what remorse he can. He acknowledges his behaviour was wholly irresponsible.

"He clearly is an immature, stupid and thoughtless young man.".

Judge Anthony Russell told the teenager in passing sentence it was fortunate that only a superficial wound had resulted.

"The situation could clearly have been very much worse. Things can very easily get out of hand when knives are used in fights.

"That is one of the reasons there is very real public concern about the use of knives, as a matter of course now, it seems by young men and indeed,sometimes young women.

"It must be understood, when cases involving the use of knives are prosecuted, serious punishment will result."