Man stabbed in post-funeral row

A GRIEVING son knocked his girlfriend unconscious after they had been to his dad’s funeral – then savagely knifed her brother as he tried to stick up for her.

Karl Gough had been drinking with partner Elizabeth Harrison at his father’s wake and after returning home they began to argue.

A court heard Miss Harrison’s brother, Alfie Harrison, became involved and stuck up for his sibling, so Gough invited Mr Harrison outside and armed himself with a carving knife.

When Miss Harrison tried to disarm him she was punched to the ground and kicked in the head, causing her to lose consciousness.

Gough then lunged at Mr Harrison with the knife and stabbed him the stomach, causing serious injuries that left him fearing he would die.

Now the 24-year-old, who admitted wounding with intent, assault and possessing an offensive weapon, has been jailed for nine years at Newcastle Crown Court

Recorder Simon Kealey QC told him: “There are many people who are not fortunate enough to survive the knife blow you inflicted on Mr Harrison.”

The court heard Miss Harrison had been in a relationship with Gough for around a year when she had attended his father’s funeral with him on July 21.

Some of the funeral party had gone out drinking in Sunderland after the service.

The court heard trouble started when they got back to Miss Harrison’s home, where her brother lived some of the time, in the early hours of the next morning and there was a “party” going on.

Gough ended up picking up a serrated carving knife from the kitchen when the row, which started inside the house in Hendon, Sunderland, spilled outside.

His 22-year-old girlfriend suffered a cut to her hand when she tried to disarm him, before he punched and kicked her unconscious.

Gough then plunged the knife into her 31-year-old brother. The court heard the blade went through Mr Harrison’s abdominal wall, lacerated his liver and badly damaged his gall bladder, which had to be removed.

The court heard when Miss Harrison regained consciousness she saw her badly injured brother was also on the ground.

Prosecutor Jolyon Perks said: “When she woke up she saw her brother lying some distance away on the road. “He was bleeding from a right-side stomach injury.” Gough left the scene after the stabbing but was arrested at a nearby house with “blood on his hands, face and neck area”.

Mr Harrison was taken to hospital for surgery and has been left with scars. He said in an impact statement he can no longer enjoy his boxing or motorcycling hobbies as a result of his injuries and has left the area due to the impact the attack has had on him.

As well as the prison sentence, Gough, of no fixed address, was given lifelong restraining order to keep him away from the victims.

Recorder Kealey told Gough: “I accept you would have been upset by the music and party that was going on but you acted in a way that night which was extremely violent and which, you concede, can only be met by a sentence, and a very significant sentence, of imprisonment.”

Vic Laffey, defending, said: “There was something of a party going on. That, quite naturally, caused him a significant amount of upset.

“Short of the day when this man’s father died, this is the most disastrous day of this man’s life.”