A court heard how a 24-year-old man who lunged at his victim’s face with a knife missed blinding him by a millimetre. Steven Whitford, of Valletort Place, had pleaded guilty to a series of offences which took place in September last year.
The incidents saw Whitford argue with his victims before following them through the city streets and then launching an attack with a knife.
Prosecutor Paul Grumbar told Plymouth Crown Court on December 11 how two men had entered the Nowhere Inn public house in Gilwell Street in the very early hours of September 3, 2024.
Whitford later entered and at some stage approached the two men and started an argument with them. They soon left the pub but Whitford followed and began to shout at the men along the street, demanding to know what happened regarding a woman he named.
One of the men replied but this appeared to enrage Whitford. The men walked off towards Mount Street while Whitford shouted “I’ll stab you in the neck”.
Mr Grumbar said the men noticed Whitford had a “small blue object” in his left hand. The men turned away but Whitford pushed one of them in the back and the man noticed the blue object had a blade.
Whitford then punched one of the men in the mouth and the back of his head. Whitford turned to the other male to ask “why are you staring at me?” before “lunging” at him and aiming the knife at his right eye.
Steven Whitford – jailed following a knife attack in Plymouth city centre
(Image: Devon and Cornwall Police)
The court heard that Whitford then ran off and the victim felt his face “wet” and realised it was blood “pouring from his face”. He was taken to Derriford Hospital where it was found he had a cut to his eyelid. Mr Grumbar said the treatment was “painful” especially after the cut became infect and swelled up.
He told the court that “1mm or 2mm further down [the victim] would probably have lost his eye.” The court was told that later the same day Whitford went to the Skiving Scholar public house at Sherwell Arcade where he punched a glass door.
CCTV was seized in connection with the investigation and Whitford was identified him. Attending his address they found the weapon, along with 4.9gms of cocaine and some cannabis. Mr Grumbar said Whitford pleaded guilty to the criminal damage to the glass and the possession of class A and class B drugs at a previous hearing at Plymouth Magistrates’ Court.
The court was told Whitford had a previous conviction in July 2024 for possession of a bladed article in public, which saw him handed a 16 week jail sentence suspended for 12 months. As a result, he was in breach of that suspended sentence.
In mitigation, Whitford’s advocate Ali Rafati said his client carried the knife as it was used to cut up amphetamine and cannabis and he kept in with him. He said Whitford was “the first to admit what an utter fool he has been”.
He said that in 2019 Whitford’s then partner was expecting their child and he contacted his own father to ask if he wanted to be involved. He was bluntly rebuffed and after the loss of his much-loved grandmother who helped raise him his mental health suffered and he turned to drugs.
In 2022 he and his ex-partner lost custody of their child and their relationship fell apart. His substance misuse “got worse and worse” and he began to sofa-surf or lived on the streets while using drugs.
Mr Rafati said the woman he knew and had become friends with had made claims to him that she had been sexually abused by one of the men, which prompted Whitford’s ire that night.
Judge Linford told Whitford he carried out a “motiveless drug-fuelled attack” where he “lashed out”. He said the man he attacked had “done nothing at all”. He said the knife “sliced across” his victim’s right eyelid.
He told Whitford: “A fraction of a centimetre lower and you’d have blinded him in that eye. It was a terrible and a dangerous thing to do.”
Judge Linford said that when police arrived they found drugs, adding “it was drugs which lay behind this offence – and nothing else. It was drugs.”
He noted the victim impact statement which revealed how the victim has suffered nightmares since the incident as well as “ongoing problems that have been caused by this terrible attack”.
Judge Linford said the pre-sentence report which noted a “high level of remorse” and his own domestic trauma, including the loss of custody of his child which “must have been a terrible thing to bear – but it does not justify or excuse what you did.”
He said the slice to the victim’s eyelid and the injury “could have been so much worse”.
He added that the pre-sentence report highlights the potential risk Whitford posed and while at this stage he did not qualify as a dangerous offender “if there is a repetition of this type of offending then you could look forward to an extended or indeterminate sentence”.
As such for the charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm he would handed a 40 month jail sentence. The possession of a bladed article would receive a six month concurrent sentence.
The common assault a two month concurrent sentence. There was no separate penalty for the possession of cocaine, possession of cannabis and criminal damage, but there was a two month sentence for the breach of the suspended sentence to run consecutively, bringing the total to 42 months.
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