A SAVAGE thug with a history of violence has been jailed for 12 and a half years after slashing a man from ear to mouth with a Stanley knife blade.

Daniel Shane Kendrick, 34, formerly from Falmouth, narrowly escaped being sent to prison indefinitely after pleading guilty to slashing Stephen Cox with the pre-prepared blade at a flat in Newquay on Sunday, February 16.

Kendrick, who first hit the headlines in 2001 after stabbing a Falmouth newsagent, had previously pleaded not guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, but changed his plea to guilty as his trial was due to start.

William Sellick, prosecuting, told the court that on the day in question Mr Cox had met a woman called Lisa Graham, who he had known since the previous summer, and Kendrick, who he knew as ‘Danny’ and a man named Alastair Smith who he knew as ‘Ally’, both of whom he had known for a few weeks.

The group had been drinking together, and had decided to go to a house, and while Mr Cox had wanted to go to Ms Graham’s flat, the others had preferred his flat in Bay View Terrace and decided to go there instead.

Once there, Mr Sellick said, things got “rowdy”, and when Mr Cox didn’t join in he was called names and verbally abused. He had also objected to them smoking cannabis in the flat.

When he opened the door and asked them to leave, Mr Smith punched him in the face, then Mr Cox said in a statement he “felt something running down the right side of his neck” and saw Kendrick holding a Stanley blade which was half covered in black tape.

Kendrick ran out of the door and when Mr Cox looked in a mirror, Mr Sellick said, “he saw the cut and blood pouring out.”

In fact, said Mr Sellick, Mr Cox had been cut “from behind and below his ear to just above the right of his mouth,” leaving an eight inch wound, which required more than 20 external and four internal stitches.

Mr Cox walked to the nearby hospital, while Kendrick was later seen at The Junction off-licence on Cliff Road, where he seemed calm and relaxed, and told a member of staff “I’ve just shanked someone”, which he later repeated to a customer. He told the same staff member “keep this between us” and said he had “just sliced someone from ear to mouth”, pointing to his own face from ear to mouth.

Kendrick arrived home a short while later and told another resident of his flats who saw blood on his jacket that Mr Cox “went mad and attacked him” and he had been forced to punch him in the teeth, adding that Mr Cox had bit him. He also said that another person had appeared and cut Mr Cox’s face.

He repeated the same story when arrested, and when police found a container on him containing knife blades he told them they were useful for cutting things.

The prosecution said Kendrick had “numerous convictions” going back to 1996. He was jailed for seven years in 2001 for stabbing Falmouth newsagent Rodney Bailey after refusing to pay for a magazine. At the time of that trial he had also admitted attacking a local restaurateur and a police officer.

Towards the end of his sentence he was wrongly detained in Broadmoor secure psychiatric hospital, for which he was awarded £55,000 in compensation, which defence counsel Bob Linford said “went on a life of drink and drugs.”

In mitigation, Mr Linford admitted that the guilty plea had been entered “almost too late”, however he had entered it and spared the prosecution witnesses from the “trial and ordeal” of having to give evidence.

He also said that Kendrick had endured a “miserable” younger life, which had led to a life of crime, and since his last sentence for serious violence he had “lived a nomadic lifestyle” and was “rarely able to settle down.”

He said that Kendrick realised that the sentence he would receive would be “significant” and that “he must put his time in custody to good use,” and added “he wants to change his life.”

Sentencing, Judge Christopher Harvey Clark told Kendrick: “You have committed a truly terrible offence. You slashed a man across the face with a Stanley knife... and that caused a deep and disfiguring injury.

“The scar has healed... but it’s a long scar and you could have very easily have maimed him for life or even killed him.

“There was no remorse.”

He said the fact that Kendrick was under the influence of drink “and probably drugs”, and his previous criminal record, were aggravating factors, which made it possible for him to pass an indeterminate sentence.

After a ten per cent discount for his early plea, Kendrick was sentenced to 12 and a half years, of which half is to be served in custody and half under licence, with a confiscation and destruction order for the knife blades and another open packet of blades found at his address, and a £120 victim surcharge payable within ten years.

The judge also thanked the witnesses for having made themselves available for the trial.