Shropshire knife attacker jailed for six years

David Price plunged the knife into the side of Ashley Davies's chest during the brawl at Craven Arms.

Luckily for the victim, the blade missed vital internal organs, although Mr Davies's wound became infected and he spent eight days in hospital having been airlifted from the scene to Birmingham.

A jury at Stafford Crown Court found Price, 44, formerly of the Caravan Park, Craven Arms, guilty of the most serious charge he faced, wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Judge Mark Eades told Price: "There was obviously a lot going on between you and some of the youths who lived in Craven Arms. It is not for me to determine the rights and wrongs of that, but on April 30, 2013 you went to a field in your car and there were at least three other people in the car. I am sure you went down there expecting a confrontation, you used your son Jim as a surrogate. You were in no position to undertake a fist fight and you got him to fight Ashley Davies.

"I don't know what reaction you had to how your son fared, you decided at the end of that fight to intervene yourself decisively. You armed yourself with a knife, you went over to Ashley Davies and you stabbed him."

When giving evidence, Mr Davies said he was sure it was David Price who stabbed him.

Price denied being responsible for the stabbing, maintaining he never got out of his car.

Miss Cathlyn Orchard, prosecuting, said Price had "engineered" the violence and had taken a knife to the scene and then stabbed Mr Davies "in a cowardly way".

Mr Paul Smith, defending, said Price was a family man with health problemsafter being seriously injured in a car crash.