Man’s Facebook friend request led to him being stabbed in street

A MAN has been jailed for seven years for a stabbing attack after a Facebook friend request was sent to his girlfriend.

A court heard how Ross Hunter jumped out of a car and told Aaron Hogan he was going to kill him when he saw him waiting at a bus stop in Baildon, near Shipley, last October.

During the lunchtime confrontation Hunter, of Sissons Road, Middleton, Leeds, chased after his victim armed with a knife. As Mr Hogan tried to escape by climbing over a 6ft gate he was stabbed in the chest.

Mr Hogan, who thought he was going to die, was helped by a resident after collapsing in the street as Hunter got back in the car and fled the scene. Prosecutor Rupert Doswell said Mr Hogan, who spent eight days in hospital, later discovered Hunter had been making threats towards him.

Mr Doswell said Mr Hogan thought Hunter had “got the wrong end of the stick” because he just wanted to chat to the woman. In his victim impact statement Mr Hogan described having lost half his liver as a result of the attack and contracting an infection which required a blood transfusion.

He now had a 12in scar down his chest and said he was “a nervous wreck”.

Last month 26-year-old Hunter, who had a previous conviction from 2011 for robbery offences, pleaded guilty to a charge of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm as an alternative to an attempted murder allegation.

Barrister Peter Hampton, for Hunter, said the incident had “got out of hand” and shocked his client.

The Recorder of Bradford Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said the attack over an innocuous contact over Facebook was “truly alarming”.