Photo: ferrantraite (Getty)
This is quite the bizarre story, so try and keep up.
It a’ll kicked off when the unidentified victim met a woman at the The Albert Hotel in Hull. After talking, the pair decided to head out together as, according to defending lawyer Paul Genney, they “were desperate to find somewhere together, to be together, presumably with the act of sexual intercourse in mind.”
While they first tried hooking up in the woman’s house, her mother did not want the guy there, so she suggested quite the second option: her ex’s house. Here’s how prosecutor Matthew Burdon explains it:
“She suggested going back to her ex-boyfriend’s and said he [Jae McManus] would not be present. [The victim] acknowledges with the benefit of hindsight it was not the most sensible decision. The girl began knocking on this defendant’s front door and shouting his name.”
And guess what? Jae McManus opened the door and all hell broke loose.
At this point, it seems, the ex-boyfriend asked who was at the door, at which point the woman explained it was her and her prospective new partner. The defendant then opened the door holding a knife with a five inch blade. The other man, sensing danger, did back away at that point, but as he ran down the steps he heard McManus yell Fuck off,” and “felt a prod to his back but didn’t stop, carried on running and left the building'”
It was only once he was outside that the victim realized he’d been injured. A passer-by helped him and he was taken to Hull Royal Infirmary where he had three stitches and was kept overnight for observation.
McManus was then arrested at 4am. According to the prosecutor, he agreed the complainant had come to his address with [his ex-girlfriend] and agreed when he opened the door “he had a knife in his hand.” He said he was then attacked by the complainant.
The 26-year-old McManus – who had 28 previous offenses on his record – pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis but denied wounding with intent. McManus did admit wounding, which prosecutors accepted. He was sentenced by the judge to 15 months and six weeks in jail.
Here’s what the judge had to say about all this:
“He was obviously incensed at this; his ex-girlfriend turns up with the new lover for the purposes of intimacy. I can’t imagine a more unwise course of action on the part of the two who were wishing to have intimacy, going to the home of a former partner. It’s a recipe for disaster.
You were entitled to be incensed by what happened that evening; you were not, and I emphasis this, not entitled to act as you did.”