Keighley court case

John Bennett, 28, sobbed as the court heard he repeatedly knifed the 61-year-old man, inflicting life-threatening injuries during the vigilante attack.

A court heard last Thursday how Bennett armed himself with a kitchen knife and went to the man’s Keighley home after midnight on July 20.

He stabbed his victim, who is disabled and lived in sheltered accommodation, in the head and twice in the back.

The man’s injuries included a collapsed lung. He needed emergency surgery which included removal of his spleen.

He was on a ventilator in the intensive care unit and not discharged from hospital until August 11.

Bennett, of Strong Close, Keighley, pleaded guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and possessing an offensive weapon.

Bradford Crown Court heard he was told several days earlier that his victim had sexually assaulted a vulnerable young man.

On the night of the attack, Bennett drank eight cans of lager, prosecutor Heather Weir said.

His victim told police he activated his care line alarm when he woke on his settee to see someone with a large knife.

He told the operator he was stabbed and bleeding.

Judge Jonathan Rose said the attack had a devastating effect on the man. He had moved home and was frightened, anxious and depressed.

The judge said it was fortunate he survived.

“In your drunken and furious state, you could easily have killed him,” he told Bennett.

Judge Rose said Bennett, who works for the Bradford & Bingley bank, had been of good character.

A large number of character references spoke of him as mild-mannered, helpful, kind and gentle.

He took the law into his own hands, although the police had acted promptly to the complaint of sexual assault, the judge said.

Bennett used extreme violence after alcohol raised his temper and then took steps to cover his tracks, leaving the knife with a woman who threw it in the canal.

Afterwards, he was struck with remorse and was frank with the police in an interview.