A MAN stabbed his neighbour’s son following a row over anti-social behaviour.

Phillip Howarth had grappled with Brandon Hughes before picking up a kitchen knife and attacking him.

Howarth, aged 50, pleaded guilty to causing Mr Hughes grievous bodily harm in the incident on October 2 last year.

Gary Woodhall, prosecuting, told a sentencing hearing at Bolton Crown Court how the incident came against a background of problems with anti-social behaviour between the defendant and the complainant and his mother.

Howarth had even called the police about the issues.

Mr Hughes attended the bedsit where his mother and Howarth lived, in Park Road near Queen’s Park at around 10pm on the day of the attack.

He didn’t have a key to get into the premises so began banging on the communal entrance.

Howarth, now of Atholl Drive, Heywood, lent out of his window and shouted abuse at Mr Hughes.

He was then let in to the communal area of the flats where a confrontation broke out between the pair.

The pair then began grappling in Howarth’s room who then picked up a knife and stabbed Mr Hughes in the right side of his chest but did not immediately notice he was wounded.

Mr Woodhall said: “Brandon Hughes did not realise he had been stabbed until he returned to his flat and it was pointed out that he was bleeding.”

Mr Hughes was taken to hospital where he stayed overnight before he discharged himself the following day against medical advice.

He suffered a pneumothorax in the attack – a build up of air outside the lungs that then causes a leak from the lungs.

Judge Mark Ainsworth, said: “An injury of this type is serious but it could have been so much more.”

Mark Friend, defending Howarth, said that he had problems in the building and people had damaged his lock by kicking it.

He added that the defendant had endured a ‘difficult past’ and has faced problems with drugs but was now working on it while living with his mother.

Judge Ainsworth sentenced Howarth to 14 months in prison, suspended for 18 months and was also ordered to do 120 hours of unpaid work.