A man was stabbed in Barton in a violent attack after which the knifeman bragged and laughed about the wounding.
Bradley Wells, 26, of River View, Barton-upon-Humber, admitted unlawful wounding and possession of a knife. He also admitted racially-aggravated harassment of a Humberside Police detective from New Zealand who was told “Go back to South Africa”, Grimsby Crown Court was told.
Prosecuting, Harry Bradford said Wells was out with a woman on November 7 and they had consumed cocaine and alcohol. The defendant received a phone call warning him that two men in a van were trying to find him.
A friend of Wells was cycling towards Tofts Road, when he was confronted by one of the men in the van. When Wells intervened he was punched by one of the men from the van.
In response, Wells pulled out a knife and pushed it into his abdomen, stabbing him below the rib cage. Mr Bradford said the injured man felt intense pain and was driven away to a house and later taken to hospital where he underwent emergency surgery.
The prosecutor said a portion of the injured man’s intestine was removed.
Wells then visited a park with his woman friend where they sat on a bench and the attacker described how he felt the injured man’s stomach when he stabbed him with the blade. Mr Bradford said he laughed during a call to a relative to tell them when he had done.
Humberside Police launched a manhunt and Wells fled through the town but was later captured in a field. The weapon was never traced, the court heard. The defendant was arrested and had to be restrained in order to provide a sample of DNA because of his refusal to provide it.
He later became abusive towards a police officer in an interview and told him “Go back to South Africa.” The prosecutor said the offences were committed while Wells was on a suspended sentence imposed in November 2024 for racially-aggravated harassment. For that he was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison, suspended for 18 months.
For Wells, Katherine White said her client had taken the knife from a property because he knew someone was after him. She said he accepted his actions went beyond self-defence.
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“There is clearly a background. He feared he would be attacked,” she said. The defence barrister said the attack was “impulsive and short-lived.”
Judge Gurdial Singh said the phone call to someone telling him he “put the whole blade in him” was him being “arrogant about what he had done.”
“That is someone enjoying the pain that they have caused,” he said. He said the detective who interviewed him was from New Zealand and not South Africa.
He jailed Wells for three years for the wounding offence and eight weeks for the racial offence and 12 weeks for the breach of the suspended sentence. The judge imposed a five-year Restraining Order on Wells not to contact the complainant.
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