Wheelchair user repeatedly stabbed in Wirral: attacker jailed for nine years

Glyn Holland, 41, stabbed a stranger in a wheelchair three times in the chest on a Wirral street. He was sentenced to nine years at Liverpool Crown Court.

Wirral man jailed for nine years after knife attack on wheelchair-bound pensioner

A 41-year-old man from Moreton has been sentenced to nine years in prison after repeatedly stabbing a wheelchair-using pensioner in an entirely unprovoked attack on a residential street in Woodchurch, Wirral, liverpoolecho.co.uk reports.

Glyn Holland, of Meadfoot Road, Moreton, admitted wounding with intent and possession of a bladed article in a public place. He appeared via video link to HMP Liverpool, wearing a grey prison-issue jumper, as Judge Simon Medland KC handed down the sentence at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday.

"Little short of miraculous"

The 62-year-old victim, whom the Liverpool Echo has chosen not to name, had suffered a stroke four years before the attack, leaving him dependent on an electric wheelchair. At around 3.30pm on 25 June, he was sitting with two friends on a grass verge near a Co-op store on Hoole Road, Woodchurch, talking about football, when Holland approached without warning and began stabbing him repeatedly to the left side of his body, shouting: "Have it. Have it."

Holland then walked away along Hoole Road, still holding the knife in his right hand. Officers subsequently found him on Glebelands Road in Moreton with blood on his hands and forehead. He told police he had "fallen over".

Judge Medland was unsparing in his assessment. "You were extremely drunk," he told Holland during sentencing. "You had armed yourself, for reasons which are unknown, with a very large, sharp pointed and sharp bladed kitchen knife. In broad daylight, and completely unprovoked, you repeatedly stabbed at and into an elderly, highly vulnerable man who was a wheelchair user because of a previous serious stroke. On the facts of this case, it is little short of miraculous that you did not kill him. This was an example of utterly mindless, drunken violence which rightly shocks and appals people."

Children present during the attack

Prosecuting barrister Bethany Leigh told the court that young children were in close proximity to the incident. CCTV footage played to the court showed one young boy riding his bicycle on the street as the attack took place. The blood-stained knife was later recovered from bins near the Co-op.

The victim was taken to Aintree Hospital with three stab wounds to the chest, all of which were deemed life-threatening. The knife narrowly missed his lung and heart, but he sustained injuries to his abdomen and a ruptured spleen, was placed in critical care and required surgery to address internal bleeding.

"A shell of himself"

The victim's daughter read a statement to the court describing the lasting impact on her father and the wider family. "Before the incident, dad was a man of confidence," she said. "He had a great sense of humour and always had time for his children and grandchildren. Since the incident, we've seen a decline in his mental health and noticed a change in his behaviour and appearance. He now struggles to get out of bed in the morning."

She added: "It's heartbreaking for his children and grandchildren to see the man we loved become a shell of himself. I think knowing this man is off the streets brings some comfort to dad."

The family had not been confident he would survive. "We weren't confident he would be well enough to pull through it," she said, also noting concerns that the trauma could cause her father to relapse into addiction.

52 previous convictions

Holland has 52 previous convictions for 68 offences, including possession of a bladed article in a public place in 2018. His defending barrister, Brendan Carville, invited the court to hear Holland's apology. "I'm sorry," Holland said. "I've got no recollection of doing it and I do apologise."

Carville told the court that alcohol addiction had defined and damaged his client's life. "This man's life has been ruined by alcohol and his dependency upon it, which is sad because he is a qualified forklift truck driver," he said. "He stopped working because of his mental health, caused by alcohol. He has no recollections at all about this."

Judge Medland acknowledged the apology as genuine but was clear about its limits. "That apology is for actions which went a considerable way towards killing an elderly, vulnerable man who had done you no harm at all, who was not known to you, who had not provoked you in any way and who you stabbed repeatedly," he said. "This offence is an extremely serious example of the Section 18 offence."

While the judge said a life sentence was "not necessary or merited", he concluded that Holland's long-standing alcohol dependency and the gravity of the offence warranted a custodial term of nine years.

Source: Google News UK — Crime (en)