Former boxer jailed over knife row
A former heavyweight boxer left a man with a life-threatening stab wound when trouble flared at a remote log cabin retreat.
Declan Fusco and three pals had joined four women who were enjoying an annual get-together at the lodge in Otterburn, Northumberland, in July 2017.
Newcastle Crown Court heard the group had spent “hours” socialising in the hot tub before arguments started over noise and missing vodka.
In the bloodshed that followed, tree surgeon Guy Dunn, 24, suffered a stab wound to his chest from an eight-inch blade that punctured his lung and an artery and required multiple operations.
Bethany French was pushed by Fusco, 27, during the trouble and fell onto a cabinet.
Fusco, who suffered a cut to his hand from the knife, left the scene in his BMW, which he crashed in Jedburgh and spat in the face of a police officer who came to arrest him.
Mr Dunn said in a victim statement: “I genuinely thought I was going to die from my injuries”.
Former Olympic hopeful Fusco, of Rydal Crescent, Peterlee, admitted unlawful wounding, common assault, driving while disqualified, having no insurance and assaulting a police constable.
Prosecutor Claire Anderson told the court the men had initially been a “welcome addition” to the women’s summer get-together.
But she added: “In the early hours some of the girls wanted to go to sleep.
“What followed was a number of arguments over keeping noise down.”
The court heard one such argument resulted in Fusco rowing with Miss French in a bedroom, where he “pushed her backwards” and she fell into a cabinet.
The court heard Fusco was next involved in an ar- gument with Phoebe Sampson, who accused him of drinking her vodka and he “became aggressive”.
As a result of that row, Miss Sampson summoned her boyfriend Mr Dunn.
It was during the struggle between the two men, who ended up alone in the kitchen, that Fusco was cut to the hand and Mr Dunn received the near-fatal chest wound.
Prosecutors accepted Fusco’s basis of plea that Mr Dunn had been first to produce the knife and what happened afterwards was self-defence gone too far.
Judge Amanda Rippon jailed Fusco, who has previous convictions for violence, for 25 months with a 10-year restraining order to keep him away from Mr Dunn and Miss Sampson.