Victims of a stabbing and an aggravated burglary have told how their lives have been impacted as a violent offender was jailed for nine years and four months.
Callum Radcliffe, 33, of School Road, Onchan, was found guilty by a jury of unlawful wounding following a trial last year. The stabbing took place in the street near Anagh Coar stores on March 16 2022.
He also pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated burglary, committed seven months later while he was on bail for the wounding offence.
Two masked men, one armed with a hammer and the other with a knife, smashed their way into premises on Royal Court Lodge, off Royal Avenue, Onchan, on October 29 2022 and stole cannabis and cash.
Deemster Graame Cook said: ‘It must have been terrifying.’
He told Radcliffe, who has multiple previous convictions for violence and affray: ‘These two offences were horrific. You have a serious history of violence going back many, many years.’
The Court of General Gaol Delivery heard the victim of the stabbing spent several weeks in hospital after undergoing surgery during which he had to have ribs removed and was left with a large scar on his stomach.
In a victim impact statement, he said he was left ‘scared of my own shadow’ and didn’t want to leave the house by himself. He had to sign off work as a scaffolder after the incident and was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and was taking medication for anxiety and depression.
He said: ‘I can’t work, I can’t go to the gym. I can’t do the things I enjoy. I feel like a shell of my former self.’
The victim of the aggravated burglary said in a statement that they no longer trusted anyone, struggled to socialise and most days didn’t leave their home. They had left the island permanently as they were too scared to return. ‘I feel I have changed as a person,’ they said.
The court heard that there had been ‘some background’ between the defendant and the man he had stabbed twice, having been handed a knife by another man who has been convicted for his part in the offence.
Both were found not guilty of wounding with intent.
Defence advocate Sara-Jayne Dodge said the stabbing had not been premeditated and her client had ‘foolishly been dragged into it’. He had not requested the co-accused bring the knife. The victim had moved towards the defendant and had then been stabbed.
Deemster Cook jailed him for three years and six months for the stabbing and five years and four months for the aggravated burglary.
The sentence was increased by a further six months for breach of an earlier suspended sentence relating to a previous wounding offence, taking the total to nine years and four months.
Radcliffe will also be subject to a two-year extended licence period on his release from jail.
A restraining order banning him from contacting any of the victims by himself or through third parties was also imposed.