4:50pm Friday 19th March 2010
By Court Reporter
A teenager has been sentenced to 18 months in a young offenders' institution for a stabbing outside The Flag public house.
Daryl Tunnicliff, 19, of Newhouse Crescent, Watford, was found guilty of unlawful wounding of Robert Toheny after stabbing him in the stomach and neck on August 16, 2008.
Tunnicliff, who had no previous convictions at the time, retaliated when a "rock" was thrown at his car as he drove in Station Road, Watford.
Tunnicliff was aged 18 at the time when he stopped his car, armed himself and pursued Mr Toheny, stabbing him before fleeing with friend Damian Purcell.
After a witness appeal in the Watford Observer, Tunnicliff handed himself in to police.
Purcell, 20, of Westlea Avenue, was found not guilty of assaulting Mr Toheny's friend.
Tunnicliff still denies carrying out the stabbing and at St Albans Crown Court yesterday (Thursday) Nick James, defending asked the judge to suspend his inevitable prison sentence.
He said Tunnicliff had been provoked after his car was hit with the rock.
After the incident Tunnicliff had made a suicide attempt by taking an overdose, the court heard.
Mr James said: "He has no history of any violence what so ever.
"I hope your honour will agree he does not present himself as a yob or hooligan, but comes across as a nice, gentle young man.
"It was very much out of character."
Imposing an 18-month sentence in a young offenders' institution Judge Martin Griffith said immediate custody was the only suitable sentence.
Judge Griffith said: "I will put you out of your misery. I am going to have to send you to immediate custody today.
"After someone threw a rock at your vehicle you got out of that vehicle and chased after that person, and I have no doubt what happened next was completely out of character.
"Your response was to deliberately stab that young man twice - to the stomach and to the neck."
He added: "The greatest shame of this is that, as you told me yourself in evidence, he was so drunk he could not hit you.
"You were, as the designated driver, sober and able to avoid being hit.
"Quite what possessed you to hit the drunk twice with a sharp implement in such potentially vulnerable places as the stomach and neck I do not understand.
"People are being injured and killed by these weapons and the offences have to be met by severe sentences, probably more severe than the one I am passing today.
"I am afraid your behaviour that night can only be dealt with by an immediate sentence in a young offenders' institution."
The equivalent of 15 days spent on curfew while on bail will count towards the sentence.
The incident was featured on the front page of the Watford Observer on Friday, August 22, 2008.
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