Man stabbed pensioner and threatened to cut off worker's testicles

ATTACKER JAILED FOR FIGHT YEARS

- JASON EVANS

A MAN plunged a kitchen knife into the chest of an 81-year-old man in a seeming revenge attack after wrongly coming to believe his victim was dating his partner, a court has heard.

Peter Rees had gone to live with his girlfriend and her pensioner friend after being evicted from his housing association flat when he pulled a knife on a maintenance man who was fixing his dripping tap and threatened to cut off his testicles.

A judge at Swansea Crown Court described the facts of the case as "disturbing to say the least".

He then told Rees that the only difference between the offence he committed - wounding with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm - and murder was "luck".

Craig Jones, prosecuting, told the court that in March this year a maintenance worker from Beacon Cymru went to Rees' flat in Rose Hill Terrace in the Mount Pleasant area of Swansea to fix a faulty tap.

The court heard 67-year-old Rees appeared intoxicated either through drink or drugs but was initially polite to the handyman. However, when the worker was lying on the floor of the bathroom trying to fix the plumbing the defendant burst in carrying a large kitchen knife.

The prosecutor said the maintenance operative got to his feet and spoke to Rees to try to defuse the situation but the defendant made repeated threats to stab and "slice" the man.

A physical struggle then took place between the two men in the confined space of the small bathroom with Rees continuing to issue threats to use the knife, including that he would cut off his victim’s testicles.