A man has been jailed for 11 years for stabbing a teenager who had to have life saving surgery after the knife penetrated his heart.
Jason Johnson was cleared yesterday (Feb 20) by a jury at Leeds Crown Court of attempting to murder Jordan Cull on October 27 last year but had already admitted wounding him with intent to do grievous bodily harm at Wortley Towers, Armley, Leeds.
Mr Cull, who was 19 at the time, only survived because the ambulance got to him so quickly and because he was close to a major cardiac centre at Leeds General Infirmary, Alistair MacDonald QC prosecuting told the court. He told the jury “You will not be surprised to learn, had immediate surgery not been carried out, Mr Cull would have died.”
Jailing Johnson, 42 of Bawn Drive, Farnley, Leeds, Mr Justice MacDuff said: “This was a wicked and evil attack and I judge you to be a dangerous man.
You are fortunate Mr Cull got immediate treatment and his life was saved otherwise you would have been indicted for murder.”
He said the victim had suffered a harrowing experience and remained physcially and psychologically scarred.
A 17-year-old youth who was found guilty by the jury of wounding Mr Cull with intent and another 17-year old who admitted attempting to cause him grievous bodily harm with intent will be sentenced at a later date.
The jury heard that Johnson stabbed Mr Cull in the foyer of the block of flats wounding him in the left ventricle of the heart. Half a pint of blood was found in the tissue around the heart and more than a pint and three quarters in the chest cavity.
When he ran outside before collapsing he was attacked with a golf club so forcefully by one of the youths the club head broke.