Chorley man Jamie Smith stabbed in heart after child sex comments at gathering

Malik Khalid Hussain, 18, of no fixed abode, is starting 12 months in a young offender's institution after admitting wounding Jamie Smith on March 21 at a house in Eaves Lane, Chorley.

The court accepted there was a high degree of provocation because Smith remarked he would "bang" the defendant's little girl, as the dad was video calling the youngster, but ruled the knife injury was "a fraction away from being fatal".

The blow, which caused a 2 to 3cm wound ruptured Smith's right ventricle, causing the leaking of blood into sac around his heart, and he also suffered a slash to his neck and cut to his thumb.

The court heard although it was feared his injuries would be fatal, Smith recovered and continues to live a chaotic lifestyle.

He refuses to cooperate with the court case.

Police body cam footage in the aftermath show officers being verbally abused.

Francis McEntee, prosecuting, said: "The victim was stabbed shortly before 5pm.

"It is the prosecution case that the victim had instigated a fight with the defendant, and we have no doubt he would have been displaying the same intoxicated belligerence."

The court head Smith was holding a bottle during the argument and Hussain, fearing what would happen, retreated to the kitchen and grabbed a knife from a knife block.

Mr McEntee said witness accounts supported the defendant had been the subject of "considerable provocation" prior to the stabbing, and that other arguments had happened at the property during the day

After the stabbing one witness saw Hussain, who had bloodied hands, remark: "I lashed out - he said something about my daughter".

Defending, Lucy Wright said a prison term would lead to his losing his employment as a gardener and the stability he had built for himself.

She said: "Fortunately his daughter was too young to understand what was being said.

Judge Simon Medland QC said: "You were subjected to very considerable provocation by the man who ended up being wounded by what he said and by how he behaved.

"That is undoubtedly true, it is, however, also regrettably undoubtedly true that your response to that was completely unacceptable

"I have no doubt it was largely because you were in drink that you responded like that.

"He might there and then have died and you would have been charged with murder it is something of a miracle he has recovered.

"His conduct on that day and on other occasions is deeply unsatisfactory but that doesn't mean I can simply overlook what happened to him."

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