By Staff Reporter

Last updated at 11:56, Saturday, 09 March 2013

A man was stabbed with a kitchen knife when he tried to stop his partner’s son beating up his girlfriend.

Stephen Armstrong was hurt when he went to help Danielle Phillipson when she was being attacked by her boyfriend Kyle Sangerman at the home they all shared.

But as he did so Sangerman went to the kitchen and fetched a knife, which he used to stab Mr Armstrong in the side, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

Mr Armstrong needed three stitches but was not badly hurt.

Prosecutor Alan Lovett told the court the incident happened after the family got back to their home in Scotby Road, Scotby, near Carlisle, after a night at the pub on August 25 last year.

Sangerman and Ms Phillipson went to sleep in the living room but he soon woke up shouting at her and telling her to get out.

His mother, who was pregnant, and Mr Armstrong were awoken by the noise and managed to calm Sangerman down but he soon “erupted” again after his girlfriend refused to give him a cuddle.

Sangerman then grabbed Ms Phillipson by the throat and pulled her to the floor before trying to throw her out of the house, Mr Lovett said.

He punched her several times in the face and held her round her throat so she could not breathe. When Mr Armstrong intervened Sangerman punched him and in the struggle that followed knocked him to the floor, where he bit him in the ribs.

Sangerman got up, went to the kitchen and fetched a knife, with which he stabbed Mr Armstrong in another struggle.

“He was like a man possessed,” Mr Lovett said.

Sangerman, 21, pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm on Mr Armstrong. He also admitted a charge of common assault on Ms Phillipson.

She was in the court’s public gallery to support him.

Claire Thomas, defending, said Sangerman was “shocked and disgusted” by what he had done.

She told the court: “This offence has brought home to him his behaviour when under the influence. He has not consumed drugs since the incident and his consumption of alcohol has been extremely limited.”

Ms Thomas said Sangerman was now determined to be a good role model for his mother’s new baby.

“He does not want her to grow up believing that this type of behaviour is appropriate,” she said.

Sangerman was given a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years and put under a curfew to keep him indoors at home every night for the next six months.

First published at 11:11, Saturday, 09 March 2013
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk