AN ATTACKER who went into a Stratford man’s flat uninvited and slashed him across the forehead with a ‘fearsome’ kitchen knife has been jailed.
Despite the gash Lee Bannergee caused needing stitches, his plea of not guilty to unlawful wounding was accepted by the prosecution at Warwick Crown Court.
The 36-year-old of Rosedale Avenue, Erdington, Birmingham, was jailed for 16 months after pleading guilty to an alternative offence of assault causing actual bodily harm.
Prosecutor Dean Easthope said in October 2018 George Wilkins was at his Alcester Road flat with a number of other people.
They were in the kitchen at about 4.30 in the morning when there was a bang, and as the door opened they saw Bannergee holding a kitchen knife with a ten-inch blade down by his side.
Mr Easthope observed: “This was the last chapter in an ongoing series of comings and goings and petty disagreements.”
Bannergee ordered Mr Wilkins to get down on his knees, but he defiantly responded: “I’m not getting on my knees for anyone.”
He told Bannergee to get out of his flat, at which Bannergee, after repeating the order for him to get down on his knees, slashed at him with the knife – cutting Mr Wilkins’ forehead leaving blood streaming down his face.
“He is again told to get down on his knees, but Mr Wilkins manages to disarm Bannergee and get the knife from him,” said Mr Easthope.
At that point Bannergee seemed to think better of what he was doing, but as calls were made for assistance, he told the other people present that no-one should call the police.
“There was talk about £1,000 if nothing was said, but Mr Wilkins told him ‘I don’t want your money, just go.’”
Bannergee left before an ambulance and the police arrived at the flat, but was located a short time later and arrested.
The gash to Mr Wilkins’ forehead required four stitches.
He added Bannergee had ‘a lengthy record,’ and although it had tailed off in recent years, he had been jailed for 12 months in 2016 for an assault.
Bernard Porter, defending, said Bannergee was a single man at the time who spent a lot of time going out drinking.
But since then his personal life had settled down, and he had a supportive partner with who he had a nine-month-old child, and a full-time job as a driver.
Jailing Bannergee, Judge Anthony Potter told him: “You, sadly, are not a man who is unused to violence, and you have a number of convictions that aggravate your behaviour in this case.
“The message needs to go out that people who produce knives and use knives must go to prison.”
