A KNIFEMAN stabbed a man in the chest and arm as he tried to make peace between groups outside a town centre nightclub.

Marcus Scott lashed out at 19-year-old Zahid Ishaq, walking towards him outside the Level nightclub, Bolton, just before 5am on February 9.

Zoe Dawson, prosecuting, told Bolton Crown Court how 22-year-old Scott and his friend, 17-year-old Jack Worthington, had got into a row with a group of men.

But when one of the men went to punch them, both Scott and Worthington pulled out knives.

“Both retaliated, appearing to be brandishing knives,” said Miss Dawson.

Zahid Ishaq had spent the night out in town with friends when he came across the two groups of men and asked, “what’s going on”?

“In his mind he was trying to act as peacemaker,” said Miss Dawson.

But, unprovoked, Scott walked up to him and stabbed him three times, once in the armpit and twice in his upper arm.

Mr Ishaq, who had been wearing a leather jacket, was taken to hospital and needed stitches to the three wounds.

Scott, of Wolsey Street, Radcliffe, and Worthington, of Heath Street, Manchester, left the scene in a Nissan Micra and headed for a friend’s house where police found them hiding in a bathroom.

Scott pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm, affray and possessing a knife in public. Worthington admitted affray and possessing a knife.

Nicholas Clarke, for Scott, who has a previous conviction for drug dealing, stressed that he comes from a good family but got in with a wrong crowd as a teenager.

“He blames absolutely no one else for his current situation,” he said.

“Mr Scott is a man who sees threats when they don’t actually exist.”

Mr Clarke added that, on the night of the stabbing Scott had gone to pick someone up from Bolton, taking family friend Worthington with him.

Simon Gurney, for Worthington, said the teenager had not discussed what happened that night, but that he had stood behind his co-defendant and pulled the knife out after they were attacked and, since then has attempted to “put his life on the right path”, steering clear of cannabis and enrolling on an electrician’s course.

Judge Richard Gioserano sentenced Scott to two years in prison.

He told the defendant: “The potential for someone to suffer more than superficial stab wounds was obvious. Someone could, quite easily, have ended up dead.

“The public are becoming more and more alarmed by young people who carry knives in the street.”

He sentenced Worthington, who has no previous convictions, to a youth rehabilitation order for two years which includes 120 hours unpaid work, a 7pm to 7am curfew for three months and supervision.