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Eight years in jail for knife aacker
A MAN who caused his neigh- bour to fall from a first-floor win- dow after stabbing him in the back has been jailed for eight years and eight months. Maidstone Crown Court heard
Luke Punt (20), formerly of Boxley Road, Maidstone, also kicked an- other man, aged 79, be- fore carry- ing out the knife at- tack. The court
Luke Punt
heard po- lice were called to a hostel in Boxley
Road on September 8 last year fol- lowing a report that an elderly man had been attacked. Witnesses to the assault said they
saw Punt topless, punching the air and talking to himself moments earlier, and that he had also tried to start a fight with another pedes- trian before targeting the elderly man.
When officers arrived to investi-
gate, a 54-year-old man who had fallen from a first-floor window was also found with a stab wound and cuts to his back. The victim had suffered a broken
back, fractured skull and a blood clot on his brain in the fall. He spentweeks under sedation in hos- pital and was unable to speak to police until November, but had no memory of the attack other than that he remembered going to the pub because he had £30 and
wanted to treat Punt and another neighbour at the hostel to a drink. Following the stabbing, which
took place in the victim’s bedroom, Punt told neighbours he had had an argument with the man and that he had fallen from the win- dow.
When arrested Punt was de- scribed as smelling strongly of al- cohol, slurring his words and being unsteady on his
feet.ASwiss army knife believed to have been used in the attack was later found hidden in the kitchen shared by Punt and his neighbours. He was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court after he admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent, a count of causing grievous bodily harm without intent and an- other of assault. Investigating officer DC Debbie Prescott said: “It is almost a mira- cle that the victim did not die from the injuries, either from the stab wound or the broken bones he suf- fered from falling out of a first- floor window. “Luke Punt was clearly in a fighting mood that day, as his first elderly victim found out when he was kicked in the face in a com- pletely unprovoked attack. “If thatwasn’t bad enough, Punt
then went and stabbed someone with apparently little thought for the consequences. “Whatever the motivation for his actions, it is likely that alcohol played a major part, but that is no excuse. He is clearly a danger to the public and deserves to be be- hind bars.”
Information boards renewed
TWELVE new historic information boards are being designed to go on display inMaidstone. The existing tourist information notices, which were expected to be in place for six years are now 12 years old, and “looking a little sad”, admitted Maidstone Council’s Christine Dyer at a meeting of Maidstone Town Centre Manage- ment. She said work was progressing to
approve designs, with the hope of getting the replacement boards up
across the town as soon as possible. Maidstone Town Centre Man- agement’s Events Group is also working with Celebrate Maidstone to produce two treasure trails for children and visitors. Both initiatives aim to engage,
educate and promote the area at home and to foreign visitors, com- plementing initiatives by the Town Centre Regeneration Group includ- ing new flags in Jubilee Square and garden planters outside the Town Hall and in the shopping areas.
Sports clubs seeking leaders SPORTING volunteers are being sought for Maidstone Harriers, Weavering AFC, Maidstone Canoe Club, Staplehurst Cricket&Ten- nis Club, Allington Chestnuts, Maidstone Lacrosse, Barming Table Tennis Club and Maidstone United FC. To become a local leader visit
joininuk.org/local-leader- application.
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