A vicious thug who stabbed a neighbour in the back

A vicious thug who stabbed a neighbour in the back was locked up for life today (Mon) under the ‘two strikes’ law after the Old Bailey heard he robbed a video shop with a toygun when he was 15.

Young father Mark Heffernan, 23, plunged a carving knife into Neil Prior’s back after accusing him of spiking his tea with a hallucinogenic drug.

The 12″ blade passed all the way through Mr Prior’s upper body during the struggle on the lawn in front of the two men’s homes in Farnham, Surrey.

As father-of-one Mr Prior lost consciousness callous Heffernan kicked him in the head and shouted: ‘You spiked my drink with acid!’

Passing sentence, Judge Graham Boal, QC, told Heffernan: ‘This was a deliberate stabbing with a lethal bladed weapon.

I accept you believed your victim had spiked your tea but whatever you thought it provided no justification whatsoever for attacking a man with a lethal knife.

‘Had not a skilled medical team been immediately available you would have been facing a charge of murder and you would have had no viable defence to murder.

‘

Mr Prior collapsed in a pool of blood after Heffernan attacked him on the leafy Hill Crest Estate in Farnham.

Mr Prior was rushed to hospital and surgeons managed to save his life even though the blade had ruptured his spleen and critical arteries.

‘That’s how close he was to death and that’s how vicious this stabbing was,’ Prosecutor Mr Paul Dodgson told the court.

Heffernan, now of Saxonbury Close, Mitcham, was cleared by a jury of attempted murder.

But Heffernan was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

The attack took place on September 21 last year.

The court had heard that in 1992 Heffernan was locked up for 33 months at the Old Bailey for his part in an armed raid on a video shop in Streatham.

On that occasion a brave woman shop assistant thwarted Heffernan and his sidekick.

Judge Graham Boal, QC, said the conviction means he ‘falls foul’ of the Crime Sentences Act, 1997 – otherwise known as the ‘two strikes and you’re out’ law.

‘In 1992 when you were only 15 you were convicted of attempted robbery and possessing an imitation firearm.

You have now been convicted of wounding with intent, convicted, I must add on compelling evidence.

‘

When Heffernan and his partner Charlotte Bray moved into Flat 4, Hill Crest, in Upper Weybourne Lane, with their son Joseph, last July, they discovered that they had moved in next door to some old school friends.

Miss Bray had been to school with Emma Radford who was living in Flat 3 with her husband Mr Prior and Harley, her son by a different man.

Their young children becoming playmates almost instantly while the two men worked together at the same frozen food factory in Farnborough.

But in the summer of last year bad blood developed between the pair.

Heffernan believed that Mr Prior had been spiking his tea with the hallucinogenic drug LSD, the court heard.

By the beginning of September both men had returned to their homes and their dispute erupted into violence.

On the day of the attack Mr Prior had been suffering from a migraine and sitting on the settee when the ‘aggressive and ‘cocky’ defendant turned up.

‘He came in and told Prior he wasn’t going anywhere until the problem was sorted out so Mr Prior told him to get out,’ Mr Dodgson continued.

‘Mr Prior pushed Heffernan to the door at which point Heffernan pulled Mr Prior out onto the lawn outside.

‘There was a short tussle and Mr Prior tried to back off with his arms raised in the air.

The defendant produced the blade.

‘Heffernan swung his right hand back and then in an arcing motion plunged the knife into Mr Prior’s side.

‘The knife went in through the back and it came out through the front.

That stab caused serious injuries to his spleen and aorta from which he very nearly died.

‘That’s how close he was to death and that’s how vicious this stabbing was.

‘

An ambulance arrived to rush Mr Prior to hospital and his life was saved by a team of surgeons who operated immediately.

Meanwhile Heffernan walked ‘calmly’ away, after putting the knife in his jacket pocket and went to a local pub to get drunk.

Giving evidence he maintained that he acted in self-defence after Mr Prior produced the knife.

He maintained that he disarmed his opponent and that the blade went into Mr Prior during the desperate struggle.

ends

mmmm