Teenage gatecrasher who stabbed partygoer in the stomach in East Yorkshire village jailed for ten years

Judge Mark Bury told Sheryar Nawaz, who was 17 at the time of the stabbing at the Halloween party at Warter, near Pocklington, that he could have been facing a sentence for murder.

En route to hospital, every time the victim, who was 18 at the time, coughed “more of his intestine appeared from the wound and he was terrified that he might not survive”, the judge said.

The victim had since recovered physically, after having emergency bowel surgery, but still bore the psychological scars.

Prosecutor Geraldine Kelly said the victim had become fearful of people wearing tracksuits and “of seeing Asian people because of the ethnicity of the person who attacked him”.

Passing sentence at Hull Crown Court yesterday, Judge Bury said: “Hardly a day seems to go by without a report of a young person being fatally stabbed with a knife.

“There is a legitimate heightened public concern about the carrying and use of knives and the courts have a duty to pass sentences that deter such crimes and make it clear such behaviour will not be tolerated.”

A “very serious aggravating feature” of the case was that Sheryar took a knife when he and his friends travelled 25 miles to the party in October 2017, attended by around 100 teenagers.

The victim was sent to ask him to put the knife on the table or leave. The Judge told Nawaz he had “an option to avoid a confrontation which you didn’t, you escalated the situation”.

Nawaz dumped the knife but was stopped by police in Hull and identified by his distinctive jacket. He was found guilty of wounding with intent earlier this month, but still denied the offence, the court heard.

The court heard that the defendant's family had been subjected to a “plethora of racist abuse” from “unsavoury” people and there had also been attacks on property as a result of the case being reported.

Abdul Iqbal QC defending, said although the case was never put as a racial attack, some people treated it as such.

But Judge Bury said: “In my view there is not a shred of evidence that this was to do with race.”

Passing sentence he said he took into account the impact on his family’s health and business, but it was “only fair to point out that the blame for that lies with you”.

He also spoke of a "truly impressive set of references" referring to Nawaz as kind, generous, charitable, courteous and polite, and said he appreciated that his "promising future" had been blighted.

Nawaz will serve half the sentence and will then be released on licence.