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Stabbing row teen detained
Knifeman Adam Murphy
A DRUNKEN teenager who stabbed an acquaintance after an argument has been sentenced to two years’ detention.
Adam Murphy, 18, picked up a carving knife during the row with Ryan Ringer at a flat where homeless Murphy was temporarily living.
The blade passed between two ribs but fortunately did not penetrate his chest wall, said Christopher Stables, prosecuting.
Murphy, who has 13 previous convictions and a reprimand for possessing a bladed article, pleaded guilty to wounding.
Sentencing him, Judge David Aubrey, QC, told him: “You must appreciate, and others must, that those who use knives will lose their liberty and lose it for a significant period of time.” He told him that he was satisfied when he left the scene he had no idea or no concept of the harm he had caused his victim.
The judge said he accepted he was a troubled young man with a difficult background and only his age and guilty plea saved him from a longer sentence.
Christopher Stables, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that in July last year the 27-year-old victim was temporarily staying at the flat of his friend Stuart Wilding in Manor Street, Wigan.
On July 5 Murphy, a friend of Mr Wilding, moved in temporarily to avoid the police as he thought he was wanted for breaching a court order.
The three men got along well but the violence flared in the early hours of July 8 after they had drunk large amounts of cider.
Mr Ringer’s ex-girlfriend was there on the evening of July 7 and he was irritated that Murphy was over-familiar with her, said Mr Stables.
The two men began rowing after she had gone home and Murphy threatened him and clenched his fist so Mr Ringer hit him in self-defence.
Murphy left but returned ten minutes later and after they began arguing again he went into the kitchen and came back into the lounge with a carving knife.
He ignored requests to put it down and swung out with it and stabbed Mr Ringer in the left side of his chest. The victim later told how Murphy had thrust it forward in an arcing motion and the blade twisted sideways before causing a 3cm wound.
The police arrived about 3.45am and Murphy was arrested outside the premises. Mr Stables said that the blow was more a slashing motion than a stabbing.
Tom Watson, defending, said that Murphy had been living where he could and drinking cheap alcohol.
He has now spent six months in custody and is trying to use his time positively and wishes to apologise to his victim.
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Saturday 18 May 2013
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