Near-fatal stabbing followed by burglary
MAN PLEADS GUILTY FROM PRISON TO SECOND CRIME
A VIOLENT thug who stabbed a man six times as part of a three-on-one attack won’t serve extra time in prison for the burglary he went on to commit just hours later.
Josh White, 22, was jailed for eight years and six months in January, after he took a knife to Gary Gill, who had already been kicked to the ground outside his home. Teesside Crown Court previously heard one stab wound damaged Mr Gill’s liver and others went into his chest.
White, along with the two accomplices who came to the fight armed with a screwdriver and an axe, originally faced an attempted murder charge.
But the court accepted his guilty plea to wounding with intent.
White turned up at “Gilly’s” home on Roseberry View in Thornaby, on Sunday, January 9, last year. He was supporting his pal Keaton Gibson who was intent on attacking the man.
Gibson, 26, of Langley Avenue, in Thornaby, and third accomplice Connor Smith, 23, of no fixed abode, were jailed for three years for the attack.
Mr Gill was followed by cameras as he was rushed to James Cook Hospital to undergo emergency surgery. He was lucky to have survived.
On Tuesday, White appeared back in court on video link from prison, to be sentenced for a burglary he carried out hours after he stabbed his victim.
Prosecutor Damian Broadbent said that later that night, White went into a pizza shop with a group of men, and told his next victim he had “just stabbed someone”.
The men later surrounded a car that had the pizza shop customer and his friend inside. Mr Broadbent told the court threats were made.
He said: “The two men in the car ran to a home on Mansfield Avenue and barricaded themselves in, before going to sleep. At 4am, White and six other men kicked the door in.
“Four of the seven men came upstairs. One of the men in the house was stabbed in the leg. When the other man tried to call the police, he was hit with the handle of an axe.”
White, of Meath Crescent in Thornaby, was due to stand trial for the burglary on Monday, but just minutes before he pleaded guilty to burglary with intent to steal – on the basis he did not carry out the violence during the burglary – and this was accepted by the court.
Mr Broadbent said the gang tried to steal a TV but left with money after damaging the house.
Stephen Grattage, mitigating, said White was just 21 at the time of the attack and the burglary and that he has found it “very upsetting” to have contact with his young child from custody.
Mr Grattage said that White spent some of his childhood in foster care and left school with very few qualifications. Mr Grattage went on to outline the mental health problems his client has.
The court heard a psychiatric report highlighted concerns that White may be developing psychosis and that he was taking medication after complaining of hearing voices.
Judge Timothy Stead said that White was not being sentenced for the injury that was caused to both victims during the burglary or because others in the group were armed. White was jailed for 21 months, which will run consecutively to the eight years and six months he is already serving.