Terry Michael Watson found not guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and robbery by jury on judge's direction
Teesside Crown Court
A man accused of a knife slashing and robbery was cleared after the alleged victim said he was too “off his nut” to remember the attack.
Terry Michael Watson, 32, was found not guilty of both charges he faced by a jury on a judge’s direction halfway through a trial yesterday.
Judge Howard Crowson halted the case after he agreed with the defence that there was not enough evidence to continue the case.
The main prosecution witness David Stainsby, 31, had told the court his police statement describing a knife assault was “full of lies”.
His signed statement read: “I thought I was going to die last night due to the amount of blood.
“The last time I lost consciousness I believed that was the end, I wasn’t going to wake up. This attack was completely unprovoked.”
At Teesside Crown Court this week, he said the statement was untrue. “I was off my nut. I don’t know what happened,” he said.
The Crown said Watson slashed Mr Stainsby twice to the left cheek with a kitchen-type knife in a home on Kindersley Street, North Ormesby, Middlesbrough.
Mr Stainsby was given 24 stitches to his cheek and more to his left ear, jurors were told during the trial.
His original statement said he and his partner were eating tea when three people barged in at about 6.30pm on September 28 last year.
It stated a man swung at him with a knife, shouted “give me your tablets, give me your coin” and threatened his partner “if you give a statement you’ll get twice what he got”.
Mr Stainsby had to be arrested to bring him to court.
In the witness box, he said he only remembered somebody in front of him stabbing him in the face.
He said some parts of his statement were wrong or false, others he couldn’t remember.
He said he was “buzzing” at the time after taking heroin, methadone, opiates and crack cocaine.
“I was that doped up I didn’t feel anything,” he added. “I couldn’t see, I was that out of it. I was in and out of consciousness all day.”
He told the court he tried to withdraw his statement. He said it wasn’t Watson who attacked him as he’d seen the real assailant in the street.
He said an officer was “insistent that he’d got the right lad”.
“I don’t want the wrong person to go to jail for something they haven’t done,” Mr Stainsby said. He went to a solicitor to retract his statement.
Watson, of Ripley Court, Middlesbrough, denied wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and robbery of a laptop, mobile phone, £20 and sleeping tablets.
Nigel Soppitt, defending, said Watson did pick up a knife and jab out at Mr Stainsby - but maintained he did so in self defence.
He said Mr Stainsby was the attacker as he was “crazy” on drugs.
Mr Stainsby leapt up saying “you owe me money” then pressed a fork to Watson’s throat and pinned him against a wall, added Mr Soppitt.
Mr Stainsby agreed this could “quite possibly” have happened.
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