A stabbing victim has labelled the justice system “a joke.”
Tom Alder, 32, has hit out after his attacker,. Robert Ure, was sentenced to just seven years in prison, with just two years of that relating to his attack.
The father of one was stabbed in the chest in November 2011 outside the White Bull pub in Bamber Bridge following an altercation s with a group of men.
Tom, a garage door fitter, who lives with his girlfriend, Alisha Greer, 25, and eight month old son, Jayden, said: “Ure assaulted my friend, Mark outside the pub so he had come inside to ask me to help.
“As I was stood there, Ure pulled a knife from his trousers and stabbed me in the chest.”
The blow went an inch into his chest, puncturing one of Tom’s lungs and leaving him to drown in his own blood was in Royal Preston Hospital for a week.
The other five years of Ure’s sentence relates to a robbery that he committed on the Friday night before he stabbed Tom the following Saturday.
Tom said: “The case has been in and out of court four time due to various reasons.
“Originally Ure was going to be tried on an intent to wound charge but then my barrister approached me saying we would have to reduce it to a lesser charge and drop the intent part.
“I just wanted it to be all over in 2012 so I could move on with my life and start 2013 afresh but I got a letter summoning me to court again in January of this year which just brought everything back to me.
“Wh I had to watch the CCTV footage again it just reminded me how close to death I was and how lucky I am to still be alive.”
Tom, who has suffered panic attacks since the night he was stabbed said: “The judge might have just slapped him on the wrist and sent him away for what he got, it’s been a waste of timing giving him that sentence.
“I could have died.”
Tom is also baffled that Ure had been released following the stabbing.
“I was in the pub with my girlfriend and her parent’s and we saw him - he shouldn’t have even been in there.
“It’s just disgusting that someone who has stuck a knife in you could be stood right next to you again, he’d done it once, what’s to stop him doing it again?”
Despite his anger at the result of the court case, Tom has nothing but praise for Leyland CID.
He said: “They did a superb job but it just seems that they have spent all their time doing a good job for nothing.
“I do thank them for trying though..”