Man slashed his neighbour’s face over a £20 debt
A KNIFEMAN slashed his neighbour’s face with a Stanley knife over a £20 debt.
Richard Gowland went to Paul Cox’s door with another man and demanded the money be repaid before lashing out with the blade.
A court heard Mr Cox suffered a four to five-inch wound to his face that required seven stitches.
Prosecutor Glenn Gatland told Newcastle Crown Court Gowland went to Mr Cox’s door in April and “there was an argument over £20 which Mr Cox owed Mr Gowland.”
The court heard Mr Cox said he would get the money to pay back the next day.
Mr Gatland said: “Mr Cox saw a silver Stanley knife in Mr Gowland’s hand.
“The two men went into Mr Cox’s flat and the unknown male shut the door.
“Mr Gowland continued to demand the money and then suddenly made a sweeping motion with his right hand, slashing Mr Cox across his left cheek.
“Mr Gowland and the male then left. Mr Cox realised his face was cut.”
The court heard Gowland, 37, returned to Mr Cox’s home a short time later and warned: “Make sure I have the money tomorrow and don’t grass me up.”
Mr Cox said he was left “angry and frustrated” by what happened to him and was concerned his girlfriend, who was in his home at the time, might get hurt.
Gowland, of Craster Square, Coxlodge, Gosforth, Newcastle, pleaded guilty to wounding with intent and possession of an offensive weapon.
Judge Tim Gittins sentenced him to five years behind bars.
The judge told him: “You were demanding money which was owed to you.
“It was a relatively small amount and there was no justification for you going armed, worse still using the weapon you had carried.”
Rachel Hedworth, defending, said Gowland is “extremely sorry” for what he did and said he committed the offence at a time when he “wasnot coping.”
Miss Hedworth said Gowland has a long history of mental health problems and has been the victim of a violent attack himself, which left him in hospital.
Miss Hedworth added: “He is desperate to made amends.
“He is ashamed of his behaviour and remorseful.
“He is determined this is the last sentence of imprisonment he will serve.”
ONE of the North East’s best-loved films – Get Carter – marks the 50th anniversary of its release in the New Year.
There was an early boost to the celebrations when a poster for the film, estimated at £100 to £150 in a sale at Boldon Auction Galleries on South Tyneside, fetched a remarkable £1,800.
“It was a very good result. Get Carter is a cult movie and there is the 50th anniversary coming up,” said auctioneer Giles Hodges.
Most of the filming at locations in and around Newcastle, including Hebburn, and in Gateshead, Northumberland and County Durham, took place between July and September 1970.
The film’s premiere was held in Los Angeles on February 3, 1971 with a preview in New York in March.
The film went on general release across the UK on March 10, 1971.
The crime film, directed by Mike Hodges and starring Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, Britt Ekland, John Osborne and Bryan Mosley, was based on Ted Lewis’s 1970 novel Jack’s Return Home.
The poster auctioned on Tyneside was the work of Italian artist Arnaldo Putzu, who had studied art at the Rome Academy.
He arrived in Britain in 1967 with his first poster in England being for the Mo r ecambe and Wise film The Magnificent Two. He also worked on posters for the Carry On films and Hammer movies, including Creatures the World Forgot.
In the Get Carter poster he portrayed Michael Caine in a floral jacket which he never wore in the film.
In the movie he wears a dark raincoat and mohair suit and in one memorable scene nothing at all.
Sim Branaghan, author of the 2006 book British Film Posters: An Illustrated History, went to Rome to meet Putzu.
In an interview with the film posters website Film On Paper he said: “Travelling to Rome to meet Arnaldo Putzu was quite an experience.
“I had always loved Arnaldo’s artworks from when I used to see them at the cinema as a child, although I had no idea they were his work.
“Everyone likes his Get Carter and I do think that is fantastic.
“I asked him why he had put Michael Caine in a floral dressing gown and he could not remember why he had done it but at that time in the early 70s he was going through a bit of a hippy period and putting lots of flowers in his work.
“He thought for Get Carter he might have added the flowers just to cheer the poster up.”
Get Carter handed a film screen debut to North East actor Alun Armstrong.
Carter’s pursuit of Eric (Ian Hendry) at the climax of the film was filmed at Blyth staiths and Blackhall beach in County Durham – now transformed by the Turning the Tide coastal clean-up project.
Other locations now gone include the Trinity Square concrete car park in Gateshead, the Wallsend-Hebburn ferry landing and a bookies and back yard in Argyle Street in Hebburn.
Get Carter was a financial success and in 1999 it was ranked 16th in the British Film Institute Top 100 films of the 20th century.
The Get Carter item was part of a collection of more than 200 film posters assembled over a period of 30 years by a movie buff Sunderland
GP.