‘Knife was to scare, not injure’
MAN ACCUSED OF ATTEMPTED MURDER ‘HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO DEFEND SELF’
prevented from turning left into Knighton Lane East while the scene was cleared.
A spokesman for the force said no-one suffered any lifethreatening or life-changing injuries in the crash.
The road was cleared and traffic was moving smoothly again by 2pm.
A DEFENDANT accused of attempted murder has told a jury he injured a man when he had “no choice” but to defend himself.
Mark MacIntosh denies trying to murder the 23-year-old, who suffered multiple stab wounds to his head, neck, arms and chest, as well as a punctured lung, in what the prosecution alleged was a “frenzied” attack.
The 42-year-old defendant also denies intentionally wounding an 18-year-old woman, who suffered cuts to her hand and thigh as she tried to intervene to stop the violence.
The alleged double stabbing happened in Flatholme Road, Netherhall, Leicester, on January 6, 2018, during a domestic argument.
The defendant, of no fixed address, was staying at the house with his partner and her relatives and tensions were running high between the occupants.
The defendant became involved in one row and the boyfriend allegedly told MacIntosh not to speak to his girlfriend like that.
MacIntosh armed himself with a knife from the kitchen.
As he reached out to check what was in the boyfriend’s pocket, he was felled by a punch to his face.
MacIntosh told the jury at Leicester Crown Court: “I was dazed and saw a blur coming towards me like a vision.
“My first instinct was to wave my knife at him and that’s what caused me to catch his head.
“I thought, if he sees the knife he’d back off but he kept coming. I was wrestling, we were holding each other, there were a few punches.
“I had the knife in my hand and was punching him, not really stabbing him.
“It lasted seven or eight seconds. My vision came back and I felt someone getting in between us.”
MacIntosh said he realised the boyfriend was bleeding and he stopped, unaware a second daughter of his partner had been hurt in the melee.
MacIntosh said he only meant to show his knife to scare the man and had no intention to kill or seriously injure anyone.
The defendant accepted the boyfriend did not produce a knife, but he said he was suspicious.
He said he had previously been a victim of a stabbing and it had made him “wary” and “paranoid” of people with their hands in their pockets.
He said he acted to protect himself, and also went upstairs with a knife to also protect the man’s girlfriend, who was like a daughter to him.
He said: “I regret the way things happened.
“I didn’t know I injured him this bad. I felt guilty afterwards.”
The boyfriend earlier told the jury he was unarmed.
He claimed he was repeatedly knifed while on the floor, which the defendant disagreed with.
The trial is due to continue on Monday.