A MAN who inflicted “devastating life-changing” injuries on his victim following a late night stabbing has been jailed for four years.

Thirty-two-year-old William Felton suffered massive blood loss after being stabbed in the neck outside a house in Witney Close, in Ravenswood, Ipswich, and subsequently had a stroke which left him with weakness in his right arm, difficulty in talking and problems with his memory, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Mr Felton, who was drunk, had been forced out of the house after an alleged incident with a woman who lived there and had been trying to push open the front door to get back in when 21-year-old Ian Starkie had picked up a vegetable knife and thrust it through a gap in the door, said Samantha Leigh, prosecuting.

The knife had caused a three to four centimetre deep wound to Mr Felton’s neck and cut his carotid artery and his jugular vein, causing massive blood loss. He subsequently suffered a stroke.

Starkie, of Cranwell Crescent, Ipswich, admitted unlawfully wounding Mr Felton in April last year and witness intimidation, and was jailed for four years.

Sentencing him Judge David Goodin said Mr Felton had suffered “devastating life-changing” injuries in the incident and had been lucky to survive.

He said it was accepted that Starkie had intended to cause Mr Felton, of Saxmundham, serious injury.

Judge Goodin said Mr Felton had been worse the wear for drink when he went to the house in Witney Close and while he was there one of the women had complained of him behaving inappropriately towards her.

Steven Dyble for Starkie said his client had been in the living room with a woman when he heard screaming coming from upstairs and had gone to investigate.

He saw a woman in a distressed state and after being told Mr Felton, who he had never met before, had been in a dispute with the woman tried to calm the “highly charged” situation down.

Mr Felton had been pushed out of the house but had tried to force his way back in through the front door. It was at that stage Starkie had made a “catastrophic error of judgement” by picking up the knife and holding it through the door in an attempt to deter Mr Felton, said Mr Dyble. “It could be said there was considerable provocations,” said Mr Dyble.

He said that after the incident Starkie had feared he would be accused of deliberately stabbing Mr Felton and accepted he had threatened witnesses.