A DENTIST accused of stabbing his love rival when he came home to find him boozing and taking cocaine with his wife has been cleared of all charges.

Phillip Gale, 50, told the court he stabbed Andrew Smith in self-defence when he would not leave his home in Foulridge.

Preston Crown Court heard Smith, a drug user with a record for violence, had become close to Gale’s wife, Jayne Masters, and the pair had started staying up late into the night, drinking and taking cocaine.

The court heard Gale, of Station Road, Foulridge had told his wife he was not happy with Smith visiting the house and had asked her not to let him in.

On August 24, a jury heard he found Smith trying to climb in through an upstairs window and had pushed him backwards to make him leave.

After that incident, Gale told the court he had stopped drinking in the local pub, The New Inn, for fear of running into Smith, and was worried about him lying in wait to attack him as he left Foulridge Social Club.

On October 16, the court heard Gale came home from a trip to Blackpool and discovered Smith in his house, once again.

He told the court he asked him to leave, but when Smith refused he took him by the shoulders to push him towards the door.

He said: “I didn’t intend on stabbing him. I didn’t intend on causing him any harm.”

Smith, he said, pinned him against the kitchen units, and unable to defend himself, Gale told the court he reached for a knife.

He said: “Initially I thought it would scare him. After that, everything that happened with the knife, was me reacting to what he did to me.”

During a week long trial at Preston Crown Court, Gale insisted he had acted in self defence.

He denied attempted murder, GBH and wounding.

The jury took three hours to return unanimous verdicts of not guilty on all three charges.

As the foreman delivered the verdict, Gale, sobbed and put his head into his hands.