Jail for New Year's Eve knifeman almost killed in revenge attack

A knife-wielding attacker who stabbed a man outside a pub leading to a “brutal” revenge attack that almost left him dead has been put behind bars for a year-and-a-half.

The first stabbing happened outside The Clifton Wetherspoons on New Year's Eve 2017

David Harrison stabbed Luke Shelley outside The Clifton pub in Sedgley minutes before midnight on December 31, 2017, after an altercation in the smoking area.

Shelley spent several days in hospital and almost four months recovering at home from the wound in his back, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

Then on May 8 last year Shelley deliberately drove into 34-year-old Harrison after spotting him in Hall Street, Sedgley, before getting out of the car and stabbing him three times.

David Harrison, pictured, stabbed Luke Shelley outside The Clifton

Harrison was airlifted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham suffering from two leg fractures, a punctured lung and knife wounds to the neck and armpit from which he was lucky to survive, said Mr Mark Phillips, prosecuting.

Shelley, who was with another man, fled the scene in a stolen car.

'Where's David?'

A month earlier Shelley had driven to Harrison's house and smashed the windows of a BMW car belonging to Harrison’s brother, and a living room window at the house, asking "Where's David?" when confronted in the driveway.

However Shelley did not make a complaint after the New Year's Eve incident until he was arrested and charged for the attack on Harrison in the street for which he is currently serving a 15-year prison term.

Shelley, pictured, mowed down Harrison five months after the first attack

Defending Harrison, Ms Alison Scott-Jones said that Shelley had "exacted retribution which was not only disproportionate but thoroughly cruel and brutal".

The New Year's Eve attack was captured on CCTV on which Harrison was seen to follow Shelley and another man into the smoking area where it appeared from Shelley's demeanour that he felt intimidated by Harrison, it was said.

Shelley pulled up the hood of his jacket and approached Harrison and a stand-off ensued.

Butterfly knife

The footage then showed Harrison reach with both hands to retrieve a butterfly knife from the back of his jeans waistband and stab Shelley.

His injuries were reported to police by paramedics but no charges resulted, the court heard.

Harrison, of Brownswall Road, Sedgley, who has 30 previous convictions involving 76 separate offences, including four assaults, admitted wounding and possession of a knife.

Pleading for leniency, Ms Scott-Jones said the defendant had turned his life around in the last year.

Given the extent of his injuries and his previous drug-taking lifestyle, it would have been "easy for him to wallow in self-pity and self-medicate".

But instead he was weaning himself off drugs and had regained the trust and support of his family to whom he had previously lied to and stolen from, she said.

However, jailing him for 18 months, Judge Rhona Campbell said suspending the sentence for such a serious knife attack would have sent out the wrong signals to the public.

Shelley, of Mount Road, Wolverhampton, was found guilty after trial last year of wounding with intent, carrying an offensive weapon in public, causing serious injury by dangerous driving and handling stolen goods.