Man who stabbed neighbour sent to jail

12:22pm Wednesday 3rd December 2008

A noisy neighbour has been jailed for two years for knifing a man who asked him to be quiet.

Daniel Bonner was left scarred for life after he was stabbed by Jamie Evershed.

He needed 11 stitches in a wound above his hip after he asked Evershed to keep the noise down.

The confrontation happened as Mr Bonner and his partner Natasha Dent were trying to get her four-year-old daughter to sleep Mr Bonner told a jury at Lewes Crown Court he went upstairs in his boxer shorts in the early evening of May 20.

He wanted to complain about noise from the flat above which included slamming doors, stamping around, banging sounds and loud music.

Evershed, 37, came to the door of the flat in Selsfield Drive, Brighton, armed with a knife with a 3in blade.

Miss Dent was in the bath when her partner went upstairs and she heard a confrontation.

She went out in a bathrobe and saw Evershed and Mr Bonner struggling on the landing.

A neighbour dashed up and pulled them apart and Mr Bonner realised he had been stabbed when he saw blood on his shirt.

He said: “He pushed me. I was quite upset and pushed him back. He lunged at me. It happened so fast.

“Then I realised I had blood coming from my left side and I saw he had a kitchen knife in his hand.”

Richard Barton, prosecuting, said: “The defendant was angry and in a mood that night. He launched into an attack, stabbing Mr Bonner.”

Evershed claimed it was Mr Bonner who had the knife and was accidentally wounded in the scuffle.

He was found guilty of unlawfully wounding Mr Bonner but was cleared of the more serious charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Judge Charles Kemp told Evershed: “When he went up to your flat and asked you to turn the music down you had a knife when you opened the door.

“You did not act in selfdefence.

That knife left a wound which required 11 stitches and has left a dreadful scar.

“Mercifully, both for you and for him, it did not touch any of his vital internal organs.

“The public would rightly expect anybody who uses a knife to cause injury to be imprisoned.

“This is too serious for a fine or community sentence and to prison you must go.”