Man knifed neighbour in apartment numbers row
A Scarborough man knifed his neighbour after apparently blacking out on drink and medication drugs.
Dean Waddington, 32, was so oblivious to stabbing the victim that he still didn’t know why he had done it, York Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor David Brooke said the two men had been chatting quite amicably in the run-up to the “mysterious” incident at a block of flats on Victoria Road.
It began when Waddington went upstairs and knocked on the victim’s door. The man answered the knock whereupon Waddington launched into a diatribe about the numbers on the doors in the apartment block being wrong. Mr Brooke explained that it was common practice for tenants in the block to swap flats – but keep the same room numbers so that it didn’t affect their benefit payments.
“The victim walked out of the building to meet a friend and felt his left-hand side (which was) hot and wet. He put his hand down and saw blood,” said Mr Brooke. He suffered a one-inch wound and large swelling to the side of his body. He went to the police station to report the matter and needed hospital treatment.
Firearms officers were sent to the scene at about 9.20pm and forced Waddington’s door open.
Waddington plead guilty to wounding without intent and appeared for sentence via video link after being remanded in custody since the incident on December 19. Defence barrister Patricia Doherty said Waddington couldn’t remember the stabbing in the flats because he had been drinking and was on a lot of medication for a range of health issues including diabetes.
Waddington was jailed for 22 months.