A hotel guest who brutally stabbed a ‘ranting and

A hotel guest who brutally stabbed a ‘ranting and raving’
fellow resident after a ‘pointless’ argument had been caged
for seven years.

Just months after Alan Cuthbertson, 37, was released from an
eight year sentence for a knife-point rape, he carried out the vicious
attack on security guard Stewart Douds, Snaresbrook Crown Court was
told.

Mr Douds, 30, had to be rushed to hospital for emergency surgery
when his colon was pierced by a small penknife.

He has been unable to return to work since.

A jury convicted jobless Cuthbertson of wounding Mr Douds with
intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Cuthbertson, then of the Highbury Hotel, Highbury Grove,
Highbury, denied the charge.

Judge Owen Stable, QC, sentenced him to seven years imprisonment.

The court heard how late on November 21 last year Cuthbertson
initially approached another resident known as ‘Franklin’ at the
Highbury Hotel bar and asked him why he had not been asked down for a
drink.

‘His attitude was quite frankly aggressive,’ said Mr Nicholas
Rhodes, prosecuting.

And shortly afterwards Mr Douds, who had been out for the
evening, returned to his bed in one of the rooms.

‘He was brutally awoken by his door being kicked in,’
continued counsel.

Cuthbertson confronted him about talking behind his back and
making remarks about his wife and her background, the jury were told.

Franklin heard the raised voices and when he looked in to the
room he saw Cuthbertson holding his victim by the throat and telling
him: ‘Don’t do it again.

‘
‘He was on any view angry and agitated.

He was ranting and
raving.

‘Franklin told him to stop the argument because it was
pointless,’ continued counsel.

As he was about to leave the room he saw Mr Douds struggling to
get free when Cuthbertson produced a penknife.

‘He saw the defendant continue to struggle and ram the blade of
the knife into the stomach of Mr Douds,’ added Mr Rhodes.

The court heard how Mr Douds continued to try and defend himself
and when they were finally separated an ambulance was called for.

The victim suffered a two centimetre deep wound to the left lower
part of his stomach and had to receive urgent treatment at hospital.

Police arrived to find Cuthbertson hiding inside a cupboard in
another room at the hotel.

They went on to recover a penknife handle from the scene of the
stabbing.

After his arrest Cuthbertson allegedly told officers: ‘Look at
the state of my face.

It was self-defence.

‘
And in police interviews he said he confronted Mr Douds
about ‘insults’ made about his wife.

But Cuthbertson claimed he had fought back after Mr Douds started
laying into him.

Cuthbertson, who as well as rape, had previous convictions for
violence and indecent assault, declined to give evidence during the
trial.

ENDS