Attacker jailed for stabbing in Newport
A man from Newport was today starting an eight-year jail term after stabbing his neighbour, who had been flirting with his friend's ex-girlfriend, in an attack dubbed 'utterly stupid and pointless' by a judge.
Twenty-year-old Paul Martin, of Hallcroft Gardens, barged into another flat in his road and attacked Joshua Hems, stabbing him three times. Mr Hems, who is in his mid-20s, suffered cuts to his liver and diaphragm.
Martin was joined in the raid by Jack Docherty, 20, of Colridge Court, Donnington; Nathan Evans-Drew, 20, of Woollam Road, Arleston; and Jonathon Cartwright, 21, of Leicester Road, Loughborough.
Yesterday at Shrewsbury Crown Court Martin was given an extended sentence of 12 years, of which eight years and eight months will be spent in a Young Offenders' Institution.
The other three men, who claimed they did not know Martin had a knife, were each given a 14-month sentence, suspended for two years, as well as 250 hours of unpaid work and a six- month curfew.
