A MAN has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for stabbing a teenager in the back at a gathering in Lowestoft.

Branding Stephen Powderham’s actions as “spectacularly foolish and dangerous,” Judge David Goodin said the 21-year-old would be released on licence for a further 18 months after his time in custody.

The Briarwood Road resident was sentenced in Ipswich Crown Court yesterday after pleading guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Powderham stabbed the 16-year-old boy in the back on February 12 this year at an address in Oulton Road following a misunderstanding, the court heard.

Believing other people in the house were a threat to him, he took a knife from a block in the kitchen and wielded it in his hand.

In an attempt to disarm Powderham, the teenager tried to rugby-tackle him to the ground and was then stabbed.

The boy was rushed to James Paget University Hospital in Gorleston where he was treated for the resulting wound.

The injury sustained by the boy was described as not serious but he did require stitches.

The court heard Powderham had drunk a bottle of whisky over the course of the evening when he committed the crime and was in breach of conditional discharge for another crime when he stabbed the teenager.

Judge Goodin said he had an “unenviable criminal record at the age of 21” adding: “You entered a different league when you took that knife out of the block and plunged it into the back of the person who you saw as your assailant at the time.”

Powderham pleaded guilty at the earliest date possible in proceedings, but Judge Goodin also informed him he could have faced a five year sentence if he had been convicted by a jury.