A painter and decorator slashed a colleague with a Stanley knife in the face, leaving him scarred and disabled for life, a court heard. Father-of-three Steven Brett, who has his own business, had the knife on him due to his work - but was involved in a scuffle with victim, Dominic Walker, before he lashed out.
Brett was sentenced to two years in prison for wounding, less 363 days on a qualifying curfew and days in custody. Judge Stuart Rafferty, King's Counsel, ordered he serve half of his sentence before his release on licence - meaning his time in prison willl be about one year.
The judge said: "There was a scuffle in which you caused injury already, him, seemingly none, bearing in mind you then went back and you chose to do what your did. And, bearing in mind, within seconds you would have seen what you had done because his face would have opened like a melon.
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"You walked away and did not help him and did not apologise for what you had done. You now say 'sorry' - but you did nothing to help him." Brett, 34, previously from Main Street, Monk Bretton, Barnsley, pleading guilty to wounding in Grantham Road, Bingham, on January 18, 2021.
The judge told Brett: "Could we begin by dispensing of the absurd; to suggest you slashed a man's face because of the pressure of Covid or because of the unfortunate loss of a relative, or anything else, is rubbish. This was a loss of temper, a loss of temper that resulted in a man being scarred and, to some extent, disabled for life."
He stressed that if Brett, of Ramsdale Avenue, Calverton, had suffered the same injury he had caused, he would be the first person to say 'the man who did it needs to be locked up'. "Not just for him, but so other people can see using weapons in any circumstances, whether the weapon was taken to the scene, an offensive weapon per se, or a weapon like this legitimately held, cannot be tolerated," added the judge on Tuesday (January 24).
Matt Hayes, mitigating at Nottingham Crown Court, said it was clear that at one point Mr Walker was on top of the defendant. "He (Brett) accepts, in hindsight, that he panicked and lashed out," he said.
"He panicked and lashed out in circumstances where Mr Walker was on top of him. He is sorry for what happened.
"He knows it should not have happened. He expressed his remorse.
"His actions were out of character and it was an isolated incident.
"He has not committed any violent incidents previously. The ofence was two years ago and there has been nothing since."
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