Knife-attack man is given three years (From Free Press Series)

Knife-attack man is given three years

A GWENT man high on drink and drugs has been jailed for three years after a "disturbing" knife attack.

Michael William Self, aged 21, from St Woolos Green, Cwmbran, stabbed Nathan David Thomas in the stomach on a canal path in Pontnewydd in April after he had been drinking and taking drugs with him and other people in a nearby flat.

Prosecutor Susan Ferrier told Newport crown court Self was asked to leave the party after becoming "irate and aggressive".

She said Self confronted the group on the path minutes later and tried to stab Kyle Proctor with the three-inch knife.

Injury to Mr Proctor, she said, was prevented because a wallet blocked the knife. Mrs Ferrier said Self then stabbed Mr Thomas and, "part of his intestines was hanging out," before hiding in bushes.

Mr Thomas had surgery at Newport's Royal Gwent Hospital.

Mrs Ferrier said police arrested Self at the scene and he told detectives he remembered being stamped on by a number of people and said Mr Proctor had punched him.

She said Self had previous convictions for failing to surrender, criminal damage and the false imprisonment of his girlfriend, who was in court.

Harry Baker, mitigating, asked Judge Roderick Denyer, QC, to take into account Self's guilty plea as well as the fact all the complainants were under the influence of drink and drugs.

Mr Baker said of Self, "His girlfriend has been visiting him in prison and they have an eight-month-old baby."

The judge told Self: "What you did was disturbing and dangerous. You were under a drugs psychosis."

Self was sentenced to three years for unlawful wounding, six months for breaching a community rehabilitation order for the false imprisonment conviction and three months for possessing an offensive weapon.

The sentences are to run concurrently.