Knife wielding drunk man avoids immediate jail term

A drunken troublemaker waving a knife around in a social club escaped with a suspended jail sentence.

Other members at the Victoria Working Men's Club bravely tackled Carl Powell as he brandished the knife in a threatening manner.

One of them, Mr Mark Morris, suffered a one-inch cut to the back of his hand during the melee which was captured on a security camera, Stafford Crown Court heard.

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Powell, aged 35, of Brownhills Road, Norton Canes, who admitted a charge of affray, was given a 16-month sentence suspended for two years and ordered to do 200 hours unpaid community work. He was also ordered to pay £600 costs and £100 surcharge.

Judge Simon Tonking told him: "You were hopelessly drunk that night at the Victoria WMC and people didn't like it. You were fighting drunk because you were spoiling for trouble and you got more than you bargained for because you got a kicking.

"Then you decided because you were so drunk, the way to respond was to go home and get a kitchen knife and go back. I am prepared to accept, having seen you on film, you were more intent on putting people in fear by terrifying them rather than wounding them.

"As a result of that one man, Mr Morris, bravely took hold of you and he got injured, although not by your deliberate action. You [have] apologised to Mr Morris, you are now friends and he wants to put this behind him."

Mr Neil Ahuja, prosecuting, said the trouble broke out on October 2 last year following an earlier incident that evening when the defendant had received a kick to the head.

He came back with the knife, swinging it around until other people crowded round him and, off camera, took him to the floor. Mr Morris suffered a one inch cut to the back of his hand, but he later withdrew his complaint.

Police arrested Powell at his home a few days later. He told officers he was really drunk at the time. he had been grabbed from behind and the knife came in to contact with the back of someone's hand.

Mr Stephen Bailey, defending, said: "By late summer [last year] he had got himself in to a position where one drink was too many and ten not enough. He has now put that behind him; he has not had a drink at all for three months. There has been no trouble since this incident."