Cocaine-fuelled forklift driver stabbed pal in paranoid attack on Leeds street
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David Hunter then fled and laid low, even getting rid of the clothes he was wearing to destroy any forensic evidence. He was eventually arrested but denied causing GBH with intent.
The 38-year-old was found guilty after a recent trial at Leeds Crown Court and jailed for five years. It was heard that Hunter had been drinking with friends in the Halfway House in Morley on the night of August 21, 2021. Hunter had been taking cocaine and had a knife on him which he was playing with in the pub.
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He and his friends then took a taxi to Beeston with an intention of buying cannabis. But when one of the group began walking to meet someone to buy the drugs on Stratford Terrace, Hunter became paranoid that he was setting him up.
He then ran up to his friend and attacked him, stabbing him twice - once in his right arm and once in his right flank, which cut into his right kidney. With Hunter fleeing, the victim was taken to hospital where he needed treatment.
The victim recovered, but said he still has tendon trouble in his arm from the attack and that it had affected psychologically, showing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
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Hide AdThe court heard that Hunter, of High Street, Kirkcaldy, Scotland, has previous convictions, including robbery and assault from 17 years ago when he received a two-year jail term. In 2010 he was also convicted of having a baseball bat in public in Leeds.
Mitigating, Jane Brady said he was now completely clean from drugs and only drinks socially. She said: “He is in a very different position from the man we heard about who sold his house and car to feed his habit.”
Under new guidelines, he must serve two-thirds of the sentence before being eligible for parole, rather than at the usual half-way stage. He was also given an indefinite restraining order to keep him away from the victim and a key witness in the trial.