Cousins stabbed by a stranger...

BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T HAVE A LIGHTER

- By OLIVIER VERGNAULT

TWO cousins were stabbed in the middle of the street at closing time by a complete stranger because they didn’t have a lighter, a court heard.

Laurel Stafford and his two victims had been drinking in pubs in Exeter Street in Launceston when the 35-year-old approached the two men and asked them for a lighter.

When the pair told him they didn’t smoke and didn’t have one, a heated conversation ensued and escalated quickly when Stafford, from Shilson Terrace in Launceston, pulled a Stanley knife out of his pocket and stabbed one of the men under the ribs at the top of the abdomen.

The victim's cousin tried to disarm Stafford and received a serious wound to his thumb and finger as a result. A sentencing hearing at Truro Crown Court on Wednesday heard how ambulances and police were called to the scene at around midnight on October 10, 2023, and the two victims were taken to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth for treatment.