A MAN who stabbed a teenager who was chasing him has been spared an immediate jail sentence.

Darryl Stokes had admitted causing grievous bodily harm and possessing a knife. However, Judge Timothy Stead ruled that he had not deliberately injured the teenager but the puncture wounds and gash were caused as he tried to push past the boy whilst holding the implement.

During a sentencing hearing, Bolton Crown Court heard how 41-year-old Stokes has already served the equivalent of an eight month prison sentence for the offences whilst on remand and subject to a curfew.

Instead of immediate imprisonment Judge Stead sentenced Stokes to nine months in jail, suspended for two years and ordered him to participate in 30 days of rehabilitation activities. “If I was to impose immediate custody on you now you wouldn’t be in custody for very long at all, it would be measured in days,” Judge Stead told him.

“Therefore, in those circumstances, there is justification in suspending the sentence and imposing on you something which I hope is constructive and ultimately helpful to you and everybody else in the community.”

During a trial of issue the prosecution claimed that Stokes deliberately used the knife to attack 17-year-old Mackenzie Harding, who had chased him believing he had stolen a coat from someone in the Lord Raglan pub on Halliwell Road.

The court heard that the incident happened on the evening of February 7 when the teenager saw Stokes running off along Torrington Avenue and followed him onto Bride Street, where Stokes hid in a gap between a parked van and a fence.

Stokes told how he had earlier found a steak knife in the beer garden of the pub and kept it. “I thought it was a nice knife so I picked it up,” Stokes told the court.

He had it in his hand when, after his hiding place was discovered, he barged past Mr Harding. “I forgot I had the knife in my hand,” said Stokes.

Mr Harding suffered superficial wounds to his abdomen and Stokes was found not to have used a stabbing motion with the knife. There was no evidence that Stokes, of Darwin Street, Bolton, had stolen a coat.

“What you did was reckless because having a knife in your hand, and you must have been aware you had a knife in your hand, and pushing past in the way that you did, created a real risk of serious injury. Indeed some injury was caused, although mercifully not as bad as could have been,” Judge Stead told Stokes.

“I hope that the young man has made an emotional recovery as well as a physical recovery from it.”