Dad took knife to straightener in row over kids football team

43-YEAR-OLD JAILED FOR 'MOMENT OF MADNESS'

- By ADAM EVERETT

A FALLING out between two dads over a kids' football league escalated into one slashing the other with a Stanley knife during a "straightener" outside a leisure centre.

James Kelly asked the fellow parent for a “f****** word” during a training session before “lunging at him” with the weapon, apparently leaving him permanently scarred.

The father-of-two, a full-time carer to his disabled son, had never found himself in trouble with the law previously, but a “few seconds of madness” left him shaking his head as was sent to prison.

His own defence counsel labelled the ill-fated episode “utterly baffling”.

Liverpool Crown Court heard yesterday that James Kent attended Halewood Leisure Centre on the evening of February 29 last year in order to take his son to football training.

There, at around 7pm, he was approached by Kelly (inset), who told him that he “wanted a f****** word”.

Nick Cockrell, prosecuting, outlined how the two men thereafter moved from the football pitches towards an area outside the leisure centre, with CCTV footage having shown the defendant leaving the premises with a Stanley knife clenched in his right hand and Mr Kent following closely behind him.

Once they had reached a secluded area beside some disused pitches, the 43-year-old, of Tewkesbury Close in Halewood, was said to have told his victim “I'll f****** cut you” before “lunging at him” with the weapon.

Mr Kent responded by raising his arms in order to protect himself, leading to him suffering a “relatively superficial” slash wound in this area.