A TEENAGER who stabbed a stranger in the face after asking him for a cigarette has been jailed for four and a half years.

On March 31Glen Cole finished work and met his wife at the York pub in Newport Street, Bolton.

Daniel Prowse, prosecuting, said they then went to the Swan pub but were too late to be let in and so walked along Deansgate to get a taxi home.

But at the junction with Black Horse Street, next to Bolton Crown Court, Mr Cole was approached by a teenager, later identified as Tyrone Hamer, who asked him for a cigarette.

Hamer then requested a light, handing back the lighter to Mr Cole after using it.

“It was then, in a wholly unprovoked attack, that the defendant stabbed Glen Cole in the side of the face with a knife,” said Mr Prowse.

He added that blood poured from the wound in Mr Cole’s jaw, which had to be glued later in hospital.

“I honestly thought he had cut my throat,” Mr Cole told police.

“He was very frightened and thought he was going to die,” added Mr Prowse.

Hamer walked away back up Deansgate and, while Mrs Cole phoned police, her husband followed him.

Mr Cole grabbed hold of 18-year-old Hamer outside the Wilko store, but his attacker punched him before police arrived on the scene and arrested the teenager.

“He told officers he couldn’t handle it and wanted to go to prison,” said Mr Prowse.

A knife was found in Hamer’s waistband, but he later denied he had been carrying a knife.

“He said he was off his head on cocaine and vodka and couldn’t remember what had happened,” said Mr Prowse.

In a victim impact statement Mr Cole, a father, said he is now anxious and reluctant to leave his home.

“He [Hamer] asked for a cigarette in a pleasant way. There was nothing to suggest he was going to attack me with a knife,” he said.

Hamer, of St Pauls Court, Bolton, pleaded guilty to committing grievous bodily harm with intent, assault and possessing a knife in public.

The court was told he has previous convictions for offences including robbery and assault.

Colin Buckle, defending, said Hamer, who had a troubled childhood, had come to the town centre on the night of the attack to see his brother.

“He is genuinely remorseful,” he added.

He added that Hamer was carrying a knife because, three weeks previously, he had been stabbed and ended up in hospital himself.

“That should have drawn your attention to how dangerous it can be,” Judge Graeme Smith told Hamer.

Sentencing Hamer to four and a half years in a young offenders’ institution, the judge told him that, fortunately, Mr Cole’s injuries were not more serious.