By Staff Reporter

Last updated at 14:53, Tuesday, 09 February 2010

A teenager repeatedly stabbed another man with a penknife after spotting him in a car with his pregnant ex-girlfriend, a jury heard.

The alleged victim was left bleeding in the street in Alston after Nathan Thomson, 18, attacked him as he returned home after a night out, it was alleged.

Thomson, of Spency Croft, Alston, is said to have stabbed the man several times with the knife and beaten him with a metal bar, in an attack in the early hours of one Sunday morning last April.

He pleaded not guilty to a charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, saying he was only defending himself against an attack by the other man.

Thomson has also denied the less serious alternative offence of unlawful wounding, as well as carrying the penknife and the metal bar as offensive weapons.

Prosecuting counsel Dan Travers told the jury at Carlisle Crown Court that the incident happened soon after Thomson had split up from his pregnant girlfriend, Nicole Ritson.

When he saw her with the alleged victim and some other young people in a car being driven by Billy Summers, he chased it down the street.

When the man got out, Mr Travers said, Thomson hit him several times with both the knife and the bar.

“He ended up on the floor, lying in the road with blood spurting out of his arm,” he said.

Mr Travers said the alleged victim suffered a severe gash in his arm and two small wounds to his chest. “He lost a large volume of blood which would have put his life at risk if he had not had urgent treatment, “ he said.

The court heard that when interviewed by the police after his arrest Thomson initially tried to play down his part in what happened. But he later admitted he had fetched the penknife from the glovebox of his car “just in case”.

He told police: “I wanted to hurt him but I did not want to stab him. I didn’t want to knife him at all.”

The trial continues.

First published at 11:26, Tuesday, 09 February 2010
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk