Man stabbed in row over noise

A court heard that victim Martin Owen had been disturbed in his own home at about 6.30am by loud noises outside by Josh Andrusjak and another man.

He remonstrated with the two drunken men from his window and Andrusjak swore at him, said Henry Riding, prosecuting.

Later that day, Mr Owen was in Richmond Drive, Higher Fold, when he saw the defendant with a different man at a cash point outside supermarket.

CCTV footage showed him going over to them and he challenged Mr Andrusjak about the earlier incident. A scuffle broke out with them grappling and Andrusjak then walked off closely followed by Mr Owen, said Mr Riding.

Another scuffle followed and Andrusjak warned 48-year-old Mr Owen, “I’ve got a knife” and after he produced it the victim suffered a puncture wound to the left side of his chest.

Andrusjak, 22, pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to assault causing actual bodily harm on the basis of excessive self-defence which was accepted by the prosecution. Andrusjak, formerly of Samuel Street, Atherton, also pleaded guilty to possessing a bladed article.

Sentencing the defendant, now of no fixed address, to 10 months imprisonment Judge David Aubrey, QC, said that he had been “shouting the odds” outside Mr Owen’s home which “speaks volumes about the sort of person you are.”

The court heard that the defendant has previous convictions including three for battery and was sentenced to custody in 2014 for affray.

Tom Watson, defending, said the weapon had been a small craft knife which was in his pocket: “It was not his intention to use it on anybody. He took it out with the threat, ‘I’ve got a knife’ which was designed to make him back away.” He accepts he threw it away and denied having had it when questioned by police “because he knew the trouble it would get him into,”