Teenager locked up after stabbing partygoer in street

Sentencing Jack Allen, 19, at Leeds Crown Court yesterday Recorder Eric Elliott QC said he was fortunate not to be facing a murder charge.

The court heard Allen began banging on the door of a house in Sykes Street, Dewsbury, after being refused entry to the party in June.

When Jonathan Ramsden went out to tell him to go away, a fight began between them, said Michael Smith, prosecuting.

A witness noticed Allen had a knife and Mr Ramsden suddenly felt blows to his abdomen which made him feel weak. He then realised he had been stabbed.

He collapsed bleeding and Allen made off.

Mr Ramsden was rushed by ambulance to Dewsbury Hospital where he was found to have four stab wounds, two to his chest and two to his abdomen.

He had to have surgery to deal with internal bleeding and spent nine days in hospital.

At the time Allen was on bail for earlier offences committed on New Year’s Eve when he had also been refused entry to a party at a house in Ouzelwell Road, Thornhill, Leeds.

His brother was inside and Allen was demanding to use his phone. When he was told he could not have it he began banging on the door, breaking a pane of glass before he left.

The police were called and were searching the area when they were told Allen had returned outside the premises and found him waving a three foot piece of wood with his brother crouched nearby.

Allen, of Navigation Gardens, Thornhill Lees, admitted wounding Mr Ramsden with intent and having an offensive weapon, and violent disorder on the earlier occasion.

Imposing an indeterminate sentence for public protection Recorder Elliott ordered him to serve a minimum of four and a half years.

He told the teenager the stabbing was an “absolutely horrific offence”. His victim spent nine days in hospital and was left with permanent emotional and physical effects.

“It is unlikely he will ever be able to forget that night you carried out this attack on him,” he added.

Allen had claimed to have found the knife on the ground. Whatever the truth of that the recorder said the situation was aggravated by the fact Allen was bail at the time for the earlier offences.

Reports indicated he posed a danger to the public when in drink.

Anastasis Tassou, representing Allen, said on both occasions he had been heavily under the influence of alcohol and had suggested that problem could be addressed in prison without the need for an indeterminate sentence.