A young Vietnamese man seeking asylum who asked “some small white people” for cannabis ended up stabbing one of them in the back with an “evil” flick knife weapon, a court heard.
Quang Nguyem was later arrested with a flick knife pushed down inside his shoe and he has now been jailed for 20 months.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that the incident involving Nguyem took place at about 6 pm on September 5 last year.
The victim was with friends in Warrington bus station when they were approached by the defendant. “There appears to have been an offer to supply cannabis. The group then walked away from the defendant but he asked if they had any more cannabis.
“They told him that they didn’t and the witnesses say he pulled a knife and his demeanour changed and he was gritting his teeth and they ran away from him,” said Matthew Conway, prosecuting.
“The defendant caught up with the victim who felt a sharp pain in his back and putting his hand to where he felt pain he could feel the wetness of blood and saw the defendant swinging a knife aggressively at the group.”
The group started to run after him and chased him towards the bus station. A security guard there cleaned the victim’s wound and applied a plaster to the cut.
Nguyem was located by police walking along Osborne Avenue, near to his home shortly before 7.30 pm the same evening. He had to be taken to the ground by the officers after failing to respond to their demands that he lie down on the ground.
A quantity of cannabis was seized from him and a black flick knife was found stashed inside his shoe. When interviewed the defendant claimed that he had been punched after purchasing the drugs from “some small white people” and that the other males had attempted to steal his bag.
Nguyem, of Capesthorne Road, Warrington, pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding, possessing an offensive weapon in a public place and possessing cannabis.
Jailing him Judge Ian Harris said, “This type of offending affects communities and not just the individuals concerned. Knives are lethal. There is an increasing use of them in our communities. Anybody who uses a knife on another individual can expect a custodial sentence.
“You, it seems, habitually carried a knife around with you and you had no hesitation in using it unlawfully. I have seen photographs of it. It is an evil weapon.”
John Weate, defending, said, “Although he had the knife on him, this was impulsive and spontaneous and a relatively short lived assault. At some stage, during what he says was a transaction to purchase cannabis, everything turned, and it was as a consequence of what happened to him that he pulled out the knife.”
He said Nguyem has been living in accommodation in Warrington for a period of two years provided by the Home Office as he was seeking asylum at the time.
“He had been given permission to remain and permission to work, up to a certain level, and that is what he was doing. He used cannabis occasionally to help him sleep.
“He accepts that he should not have been in possession of the knife, which he has said was as a consequence of being previously assaulted.”
Mr Weate said the defendant’s parents live in Vietnam and he will be asking in due course if he can be deported.
