AN ASHMONT man who used a butter knife to stab a friend in the neck during an unprovoked attack has been sentenced to six years' jail.
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Darren Richard Wooden, 46, appeared via videolink in Wagga District Court on Wednesday for sentencing after pleading guilty to one count of wounding with the intention to cause grievous bodily harm.
The court heard Wooden visited the male victim's Ashmont unit just before midnight on August 30 last year after storing some belongings there a few days earlier.
The victim concluded that Wooden was drug affected and told him to take his belongings and leave the unit.
However, Wooden went to the kitchen, pulled out a butter knife, told the victim he would be "dead", then stabbed him in the neck once and left arm twice before leaving.
In his victim impact statement, the victim wrote: "I was in shock and started to feel really dizzy".
"I looked at him and said 'I am going to die' as there was so much blood coming from my neck.
"I don't have a clear memory of what happened at my house after I called the ambulance.
"I just remember people talking to me and then I came around in the hospital.
"I still remember the doctors saying to me: 'You will most likely die during the operation'."
I still remember the doctors saying to me: 'You will most likely die during the operation'.
- Victim
In the hours after the attack, Wooden went to three other premises to get help in washing the blood off his body. However, he damaged the windows of a car and building after occupants refused to let him in.
In his remarks, Judge Gordon Lerve cited the victim impact statement and said: "One can only imagine what it is like being told by treating doctors that death during the procedure is likely.
"The injuries are serious ... clearly the victim would have been left with scars."
Judge Lerve also said he could not find good prospects of rehabilitation and remorse from Wooden because he had resisted residential rehabilitation.
However, he said there is still a justification for a finding of special circumstances for Wooden due to his limited intellectual capacity and substance abuse since he was a teenager.
In addition to his conviction for wounding with the intention to cause grievous bodily harm, Wooden was also convicted of two counts of damaging property.
The jail sentence was backdated to November 2018 and Wooden will be eligible for parole in October 2022.
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