Teenager stabbed stranger in the back before 'strutting around proud of what he did'

[dutchman]

He was found without the knife but wearing a blood-stained coat



A Coventry teenager who stabbed another man in the back during a confrontation outside Birmingham’s Hippodrome theatre was granted bail – only to be caught twice dealing drugs.

Kai John, 19, initially denied wounding his victim with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm, and only finally admitted his guilt on the day of his trial more than two years later.

John, of Montalt Road, Cheylesmore, also pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to four charges of possessing class A drugs with intent to supply them.

He was jailed for a total of three years – but because he had been on an electronically-monitored curfew for more than two years, he is likely to spend just four-and-a-half months inside.

Prosecutor Robert Tolhurst said that on September 15, 2019, John was seen in Inge Street, next to the Hippodrome theatre in Birmingham, holding a red balloon.

He was approaching people in the street and was believed to be offering them nitrous oxide from the balloon, so was spoken to by police officers who took the balloon from him.

John, who said he had not realised it was illegal to give the gas to friends, was advised to go home to Coventry.

But he remained in the area with his friends, one of whom exchanged words with another group of young men who had just come out of a nightclub.

John then took out a six-inch kitchen knife with which he stabbed one of the other group, Corey Burton, in the back.

He chased members of the other group around the street, slashing out at them indiscriminately before ‘strutting around as if proud of what he had done,’ said Mr Tolhurst.

Mr Burton managed to leave the scene with his friends, not realising at first how badly he was injured, but then collapsed, and an ambulance was called.

He had a 2cm wound to his flank, another to his left forearm, and a third near his lower spine, missing his kidney by just 2cm.

John was pointed out to police officers who were in the area, and he fled through the Arcadian Centre before being cornered in the car park where he was arrested after a struggle.

He had discarded the knife, but his coat was bloodstained and he had a cut to the hand in which he had been holding it.

He pleaded not guilty when he first appeared in court, and was on bail when he committed the drugs offences.

In January last year John was stopped in a Nissan Micra in Jimmy Hill Way, Coventry, and when he was searched he was found to have 98 £10 wraps of crack cocaine and eight of heroin.

But he was released under investigation and in April he was stopped in a Ford Fiesta in Swan Lane, Hillfields.

This time he had 45 wraps of crack and 10 of heroin, worth a total of £550, while at his home officers found £895 in cash, a number of small zip-lock bags and a set of digital scales.

Despite being caught dealing for a second time, John was still released.

John was jailed for 27 months for the wounding, with a consecutive sentence of just nine months for the drug offences.

Recorder Martin Reid told him: “It is tragic that someone of your age, with no previous convictions, should find themselves before the court for offences such as this, but the offences were serious and must be met by appropriate punishment.”