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28
Jan
Harrogate man jailed for knife and boiling water attack
A Harrogate man has been jailed for eight-and-a-half years for stabbing a man, causing a punctured and collapsed lung, and scalding a woman by pouring boiling water from a kettle onto her as she fled his flat.
In scenes which “beggared belief” at the property on Chatsworth Grove in Harrogate, Alexander Decker, a convicted drug dealer, refused to let two female visitors leave his flat and started waving a “very large” knife around to intimidate them, York Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Amber Hobson said that when the women made their bid for escape from Decker’s flat, he poured boiling water on one of them as she fled down the communal stairs.
He then chased them outside, still waving the knife around, and dragged one of the women back inside the flat, whose lounge was eerily empty except for a single computer.
The named male victim, who had been waiting for the two women outside in his car, went back inside the flat. The door had been locked but he managed to kick it in and somehow rescue the “petrified” woman.
Decker, a burly figure, told the male rescuer: “I’ve just got out of jail and would have no problem killing you.”
He then stabbed the man twice in the leg and once in the chest, perforating his chest cavity and piercing the left lung.
The victim, who was covered in blood, was taken to Harrogate District Hospital but survived.
'Defendant pulled a large knife from his trousers'
Ms Hobson said the three victims – the man, his mother and girlfriend – drove to Decker’s flat on December 1 last year and arrived at about 2am.
The two women went upstairs to the flat and a named woman they knew was already there. When they entered, they were "greeted” by Decker who for some reason was “unhappy” with the third woman for “bringing others to the flat”.
One of the female visitors became concerned because the flat was “empty” and Decker was behaving in a “strange and unsettling” way.
The third woman with whom Decker, 30, was angry went into the kitchen with him, where they argued while the two female victims were in the lounge.
Decker then returned to the living room and told the two women they were “not to leave” the flat and he was “rude” to one of them, whereupon the other woman told him to stop being verbally abusive.
“That request did not sit well with the defendant,” said Ms Hobson.
He was stood in the front of the living room where they were and told them not to leave.
One of the terrified women began to scream and tried to push Decker out of the way, but she “didn’t have the strength to get away from his aggression” because he was a “big unit”.
“The defendant pulled a large knife from the waistband of his trousers, started to wave it around and threatened to stab (the two female victims),” added Ms Hobson.
He told the court:
They began to scream, which alerted (the male victim) who left the car and came into the block of flats to find the defendant’s property.
The door was locked. He heard the screams of his mother and girlfriend inside. He began to panic and kick at the door to force it open.
Having forced through the door, the male victim was met with Decker “waving the knife around”.
“The defendant asked him if he was a bad man,” added the prosecutor.
“(The male victim) felt incredibly intimidated…and began to plead with the defendant to let his family go.”
The pleas had no truck with Decker, who screamed:
I’ve just got out of jail and would have no problem killing you.
This allowed the two female victims to escape the flat, but they were followed by Decker.
“The three (victims) ran for their lives down the communal stairs,” said Ms Hobson.
As they did so, Decker, from the top of the stairs, threw boiling water from a kettle towards them. The boiling water struck one of the women on the neck, causing scalding and third-degree burns.
Decker then ran downstairs, chasing the three victims while still waving the knife, and managed to block their exit out of the front communal door.
They then ran to the back door and got out, followed by Decker who grabbed one of the women by her hood and dragged her back inside the block of flats.
The male victim went back inside the building to try to save his girlfriend, positioned himself between her and Decker and “got them both outside”.
“Outside, the defendant continued to attack them, all while holding the knife,” said Ms Hobson.
Decker then pushed the two female victims over a small wall and then turned on the male victim, stabbing him in the leg and chest. One of the women started to scream, whereupon all three victims ran off.
The male victim was given a coat to try to stem the bleeding from his chest and was taken straight to Harrogate District Hospital.
Meanwhile, neighbours had called police after hearing the commotion. Officers arrived at the scene and found Decker “sitting calmly”.
“He told police he had done something pretty stupid and that he was going to jail,” added Ms Hobson.
Decker was taken to Harrogate Police Station, where he exercised his right to silence.
Ms Hobson said the male victim suffered a punctured and collapsed lung from the stab wound which had penetrated the chest wall.
Worryingly, he also had a “collection of air” in both lungs which left him struggling to breathe.
He also suffered a broken breastbone from the stab to the chest and there were build-ups of blood in his abdominal wall. There were burns to his chest and face and he suffered two lacerations to his leg from the blows by the knife. He was ultimately discharged from hospital.
Victim's burns left her prone to skin cancer, court hears
Decker, of Chatsworth Grove, Harrogate, was charged with threatening one of the women with a blade in a private place, assaulting the other woman causing actual bodily harm, wounding the man with intent to do him grievous bodily harm, and possessing a bladed article in a public place.
He admitted the offences and appeared for sentence via video link today (January 28) after being remanded in custody.
All three victims were in the court’s public gallery. One of the women chose to read out her own victim statement and said that she had been left scarred from the neck burns.
She had been told that this would leave her prone to skin cancer due to her third-degree burns. She also had scars from a leg wound.
“The overall pain I experienced was awful,” she added.
She said she had been profoundly affected mentally by the “traumatic” incident and no longer liked going out or looking at herself in the mirror, which had ruined her Christmas.
She had now upped her medication for mental-health issues and had had nightmares about Decker.
“My sleep has been awful; I feel tired,” the victim added.
The victim said:
If it wasn’t for (the male victim), I feel the impact would have been worse and (Decker) would have killed us. Seeing (the male victim) covered in blood was awful. It’s something I will struggle to move on from and will likely never forget.
The male victim said he thought he was going to die during the terrifying incident which had had a “massive impact on me”.
“I was in a lot of pain and in hospital for a number of days,” he added.
He said that for a whole month he struggled to move and didn’t want to leave his house due to anxiety.
“I don’t have much feeling in my left leg (and) it has scarred up,” he added.
My body is covered in scars now. This is not a good way to live and not how I want to live. I remember asking the nurses in hospital if I was going to die. I don’t understand why he did what he did. It was such an awful, traumatic experience.
His girlfriend said she ended up having a “meltdown” over Christmas due to the “traumatising” incident.
“My colleagues have never seen me cry before,” she added.
The court heard:
I have broken sleep all the time, bad dreams, flashbacks of (Decker) chasing us around.
Defendant has 'not had the easiest of lives'
His barrister Harry Crowson said that Decker had “not had the easiest of lives” and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in his teens. He was sectioned in his 20s under the Mental Health Act.
Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, said that Decker’s offences “beggared belief”.
He said he could easily have killed the male victim, adding:
That blade went through the wall of his chest into the chest cavity, perforating a lung on the left-hand side.
If that had happened just inches away, that may well have perforated his heart…and he would have been dead and you would have been up for murder, looking at decades before you could apply for parole. That’s how serious this crime could have been, and knife crime is a scourge.
He noted that Decker had “gone quietly” when police arrived but that he had also “brandished a lethal weapon and threatened people”, which was an “extremely serious matter”.
Decker was given consecutive prison sentences for wounding, threatening with a knife, ABH and breaching a suspended sentence, totalling eight-and-a-half years.
He was told he would serve about half of that sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence.
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