A 26-YEAR-OLD man attacked a close friend with a carving knife during a row broke.

Damian Greenwood, of Wesley Grove, Padiham, had been out for the day with Anthony Fildes and their partners, having lunch and going bowling.

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After some drinks in the Ighten Leigh Social Club, in Padiham Road, the two couples decided to go back to Greenwood’s house, then in Faraday Street, Burnley, on January 19, Preston Crown Court heard.

The judge was told how on the way, the defendant stumbled in front of a passing car, which “seemed to anger him and changed his mood”.

Louise Santamera, prosecuting, said: “He began to quarrel with his partner.

“Mr Fildes told the defendant to calm down.

“They went upstairs at some point, Mr Fildes trying to calm the defendant down.

“But an argument broke out between them.”

The court was told how Mr Fildes decided it was time to leave, but as he made his way downstairs, the defendant came running towards him with the six-inch serrated-edge weapon.

The prosecutor added: “He launched towards Mr Fildes’s neck.

“His partner Janet Ludlam managed to grab hold of the defendant’s arm. Fortunately the knife only caught him a glancing blow.”

Mr Fildes suffered a “relatively minor” injury to his neck.

Greenwood was found guilty of two counts of assault against Mr Fildes and Muss Ludlam following a four-day trial at Burnley Crown Court.

He was sentenced to 14 months in prison.

Tim Storrie, defending, said: “It must have been a very unpleasant episode because of the circumstances and if not a sustained attack, it was an attack which escalated in its intensity such that the people there must have been frightened.”

Judge Simon Newell told the defendant: “It is and was a lethal weapon. When you took that weapon in your hand and went downstairs, you were extremely drunk. You did not know what you were doing.

“It seems clear from what Mr Fildes said and where the relatively minor injuries were that you aimed that weapon at his neck.

“It is by chance and chance alone that you are not in that dock for something more serious.”