Man jailed for stabbing

Offending serious accused told

A Southland man was yesterday sentenced to more than four years jail after stabbing a man twice in the back with a butcher’s knife.

Ricky Lee Stevenson, 24, painter, appeared before Judge John Clapham in Invercargill District Court yesterday for sentence for wounding a man with intent to cause grievous bodily harm on September 29.

He was sentenced to four years and two months jail.

Lawyer Peter Redpath said Stevenson had been at a wake before becoming agitated and deciding to leave, but had stayed because his girlfriend had wanted to. It was a ‘‘fateful decision’’, he said.

The court was told Stevenson went to the kitchen, got a knife and stabbed a man in the back twice in an unprovoked attack.

Mr Redpath said since Stevenson could not turn back the clock, all he could do was apologise. It was a brief attack and had happened in front of several others so there was quick intervention, he said.

Stevenson acknowledged it was a terrible act, Mr Redpath said.

The victim suffered one 2cm wound and one 3cm wound. He was taken to hospital and the wounds stitched that night.

Crown prosecutor Emma Riddell said the victim required 11 stitches in his back.

Judge Clapham said it was serious offending and the use of a knife and an unprovoked stabbing of an innocent person in the back

was unacceptable and criminal.

Arson

Daryl Patrick Lee, 33, dairy worker, of Benmore, was sentenced to three years jail for intentionally damaging a house by fire at Dipton on March 24. Judge Clapham said some of the damaged belongings were owned by Lee’s then partner.

Wounding

Harley David Mckenzie, of Tuatapere, was sentenced to three and a half years jail and ordered to pay $5000 reparation to one victim and $6000 to the other for wounding with intent to injure. The court was told one of the victims had said his jaw was shattered into seven pieces. Mckenzie’s lawyer, Simon Claver, said his client drank too much alcohol and did stupid things.

Cannabis

Rebecca Lea Mcewan, 31, was fined $1500 and sentenced to nine months supervision for cultivating cannabis on September 21.

Indecent act

An 18-year-old male was sentenced to eight months home detention for three offences of doing an indecent act on a child aged 6 years last year.

Unlawful assembly

Amanda Twinning, 21, was remanded to March 29 for sentence for unlawful assembly on October 5.