Jail for Barnoldswick knife attacker (28)

Angry and drunk Daniel Brown, 28, had also threatened to rip victim Lucy Hardman’s father’s head off, to put windows through and to tear her dog’s legs apart in his latest outburst, on May 25th.

Brown has 90 convictions and has received and flouted anti-social behaviour orders in the past. A judge told Burnley Crown Court he was “verging on being a dangerous offender”, and said past prison terms had been too short.

Brown’s solicitor told the hearing he was “fed up” of going to jail, but knew it was entirely his own fault for getting sent back.

The defendant, from Barnoldswick, but of no fixed address, admitted assault causing actual bodily harm, common assault and using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour and had been committed for sentence by Pennine Magistrates.

Neil Fryman, prosecuting, said Lucy Hardman was the defendant’s on / off girlfriend. He went round to her house, very drunk, with a bottle of cider in his hand.

Brown went straight to sleep on her couch and, knowing her father was coming home, she wanted him out. She woke the defendant up at about 2 p.m., told him to leave and he refused.

Brown became angry and violent, was making a sandwich, picked up a butter knife and cut her neck, inflicting a two centimetre laceration.

Mr Fryman said Ms Hardman’s friend Clare Greenwood, who had been with the victim, became scared and when she and Ms Hardman said they would ring the police, the defendant said: “If you do, I will stab you.”

Brown left, threatening to put the windows in, to batter the pair of them and to rip the dog’s legs apart. Police were called and the defendant ran off.

The hearing was told when the defendant was questioned, he said he had had a lot to drink and had been tired. He claimed Ms Hardman went to grab his hand, pulled the knife from him and accidentally stabbed herself in the neck.

Brown had 87 previous convictions, going back to when he was about 14 and 20 of them were against the person. His record included assaults and violent disorder.

Richard Taylor, for the defendant, said he had shown immediate remorse by his guilty plea. The solicitor said: “He has, he accepts, an appalling record. He recognises his problems and he needs to address that.

“Prison will give him the chance to do that. He accepts the court will have no alternative today but to impose a custodial sentence of some length. His issues are he drinks too much and when he drinks too much, he becomes unpleasant.”

Sentencing, Judge Beverley Lunt told the defendant it had to be immediate custody. She continued: “You have got an appalling record. It’s a seriously aggravating feature that you had only just been released from a ridiculously short prison sentence, imposed for no less than six offences of battery against the very same woman.”

The judge added: “Short sentences are not deterring you. You have got this dreadful record for violence and I must make sure I protect the public from you.”