A MAN who was threatened with a kitchen knife and told his throat would be slit has spoken about his ordeal.

Baker Kieran Lineham, 36, has now moved house after the attack, which happened just minutes from his front door in Portslade, and said he still feels anxious when out alone late at night.

However, after the 15-year-old responsible for the violent robbery was jailed, Mr Lineham said he hoped the youngster, who cannot be named for legal reasons, would make the most of his second chance.

On July 17 last year, at about 11.30pm, Mr Lineham was set upon in an unprovoked attack by a boy who had committed a similar violent robbery at The Level just a few weeks earlier.

Police picked the teenager up shortly after the attack and found him in possession of a large kitchen knife used to threaten Mr Lineham.

After his arrest he skipped bail and went on the run to Somerset, where he was again arrested by police for dealing crack and heroin.

Mr Lineham, 36, who works for the Real Patisserie and often finishes in the early hours of the morning, said the attack had made him fearful of strangers and anxious about going home from work.

The attack prompted him to move out of Portslade and into central Brighton.

He said he was left wondering why he had been singled out for the attack.

He said: “When it first happens you just carry on, it’s adrenalin. Even the day after I was still fine.

Then two or three days later it hit me what had happened.

“I didn’t want to go out in case he was waiting for me. I am more cautious now. Before it happened I would walk home through Vale Park but not any more.

“I still have a few issues. I sometimes finish work about 2am or 3am and don’t particularly like being out on the streets at that time.

“The first couple of months after the attack I was cautious of everyone. If I came home at 1am or 2am and saw someone I would take a different route.

“But you just have to get over it and not let it rule your life.”

Sentencing the boy for the attack at Lewes Crown Court last week, Judge Shani Barnes said: “All kinds of people suffer terrible disappointments in life but don’t go out and threaten to cut people’s throats.”

She said he would have to serve two and a half years for the attack on Mr Lineham as well as a further year concurrent for possession of the knife.

The sentence was part of a total six-year term including the other robbery and drugs offences, meaning he will be out in three years.

I HAVE PUT IT BEHIND ME BUT SCARS REMAIN

WALKING home at 11.30pm was perfectly normal for Keiran Lineham.

As a baker he regularly works into the early hours and thought nothing of being alone in the early hours or crossing through Vale Park in Portslade.

But on July 17 last year that all changed.

“I saw him on the corner on his phone and didn’t think much of him,” he said.

“Then about 20 metres further along I heard footsteps.

“He didn’t ask for anything.

“I turned around and he hit me in the face then carried on hitting me.

He pulled out a knife.

“I was on the ground and he was trying to stab me.

“He still hadn’t said anything.

“Somehow I managed to get up and tried to run away but he kicked my legs and I fell back down.

Back on the ground he kicked my face.

“He said ‘give me your bag, I’m going to slit your throat’.

“I told him there was nothing in it, which there wasn’t.”

In the first instance Mr Lineham acted on adrenalin.

He said: “I just froze.

“As soon as he left someone called out of a window to ask if I was OK and to say they had phoned the police.

“And the police were there in minutes.”

Police were on the scene almost immediately and the youth responsible was picked up.

Mr Lineham went home and initially didn’t think much about what had happened to him.

The next day the full horror had still not really sunk in.

He went back to work – and suddenly the anxiety hit.

He was left wondering why he had been targeted and the mindless nature of the attack swam round his head.

The boy’s motive had not seemed to be to rob him but simply to cause him pain and suffering.

He had next to nothing to steal and the boy had not even asked for money until after the attack was almost over.

The attack was so brutal he was fortunate to escape with cuts and bruises.

He said he had no idea how serious the boy was when he said he would slit his throat.

“I was bruised where I fell on the ground but apart from that I wasn’t too badly hurt. I guess I was lucky.”

However despite his experiences Mr Lineham has now been able to put the ordeal behind him.

He said he was now able to look at the attack as “just one awful day of my life”.

He added: “I have had to put it all behind me. I have moved on. I have moved out of my old house and it’s a lesson in life. It’s something that’s happened to me but it’s not going to take over.”

Reflecting on the boy’s sentence, he is hopeful that it will be enough to help the troubled teenager to reform.

He said: “I didn’t have the easiest of childhoods myself but I’m not going around doing that sort of thing. But I do believe in second chances.”

Some emotional scars remain.The journey home from work, even to his new address nowhere near the scene of the attack, still gives him the jitters. He said: “You tend to think Brighton is generally a pretty safe place but these sort of things do seem to be on the rise.”

CHANCE TO GET OVER HIS ANGER

TWO men were robbed by the violent teenager who cannot be named for legal reasons.

He then went on the run, skipping bail and dealing class A drugs.

But Judge Shani Barnes, sitting at Lewes Crown Court, ruled that despite the severity of his crimes he must not be publicly identified.

The boy had been taken to Spain by his mother when he was aged three, where she led an “unconventional lifestyle” before she brought him back to Brighton and abandoned him.

Judge Barnes said she hoped he could get over his anger at the world while behind bars.

She told the boy: “I understand that life has been very difficult for you.

“You are so young and I am determined you will have another opportunity to take responsibility for your actions.”