Man followed stranger before stabbing him outside Wolverhampton chip shop
A man who followed a stranger before stabbing him during a bust-up outside a chip shop has been jailed for eight years.
The reason why Denny Whyte decided to tail Richard Duncan is still shrouded in mystery, a judge heard.
The other man realised he was being followed while driving through Wolverhampton and saw the man behind the wheel of the other car when both vehicles slowed, the city's Crown Court heard.
Whyte stopped shadowing but was waiting in the street outside Frydays in Showell Road, Low Hill when Mr Duncan pulled up at the fish and chip shop.
He went to talk to the 45-year-old in a bid to discover why he was being tailed, explained Miss Lisa Hancox, defending. Words were exchanged but as Mr Duncan turned to walk away he heard the defendant swear at him.
There was a further confrontation during which Whyte spat in his face and was punched twice in retaliation. The defendant then drew a knife and stabbed him in the abdomen, piercing his liver. A second attempted blow missed.
The victim drove himself to nearby New Cross Hospital where he was detained for almost a week but did not require surgery and has since made a good recovery.
Whyte, a former youth worker employed as an industrial cleaner, was traced by police but claimed that they had got the wrong man.
He was found guilty of wounding with intent after a trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court last month and had been remanded on bail for pre sentence reports until this week when Mr Jasvir Mann, defending, said: "The two men did not know each other. It is therefore very odd that the defendant should be staring at and following an apparent stranger. Mr Whyte cannot provide an answer because he still maintains that he was not the person involved in this incident during which he was provoked.
"He had been punched twice in the face before producing the knife and stabbing the other man. He tried a second stab movement but missed."
Whyte from Ashenhurst Road, Dudley was sent to prison by Recorder Julian Taylor who told him: "For reasons best known to you were staring at Mr Duncan and had driven slowly behind his car for a period of time before appearing in the street as he parked up outside the chip shop.
"He wanted an explanation for you behaving in this way. You stabbed him in the abdomen, piercing into his liver, after being punched twice. That in no way justified what you did and you are fortunate not to be facing a far more serious charge. You could have killed him."
