Portland man Eldon Lloyd Malcolm has been sentenced to four years in prison for stabbing a tourist eight times.

Malcolm chased James Little and his friends with one of the chef’s knives he had been using at the Park Hotel, Weymouth, and left the 25-year-old with life threatening stab wounds.

Police found a trail of blood that showed Mr Little had staggered from Westerhall and along Greenhill before collapsing outside St John’s Church in the early hours of May 25 last year Paramedics said he could have died if they had not got to him after he was stabbed close to St John’s Park.

Malcolm, 51, formerly of Reforne, Portland, returned to court for sentencing after being found guilty on April 23.

He spoke once to thank the judge before waving to his mother in the public gallery as he left after hearing his jail term could have been at least two years longer.

Judge John Harrow sat through the ten-day trial when co-defendant Nicholas Tucker, 40, of Spring Grove Court, Weymouth, was found not guilty by a jury at Bournemouth Crown Court.

During the trial Judge Harrow heard several eyewitness accounts from residents of Grange Road, who described the racist abuse that provoked the attack.

A group of men including Mr Little had entered the Park Hotel pub where the two defendants had been cooking and serving Caribbean food as a trial.

Landlord Nigel David had asked the two cooks to walk Grange Road resident Nicola Bassett home after refusing the group a drink and seeing that they were hanging around outside.

Judge Harrow said he had ‘an awful lot of sympathy’ for Malcolm for the racist abuse he had suffered during his earlier life growing up in London.

“You had almost become accustomed to being subjected to racist abuse,” the judge said.

He added: “These yobs had congregated outside and they followed you.

“Initially it was common abuse and you ignored that.”

The court heard how the abuse changed to racist shouting including sexual insults about Malcolm’s mother.

Judge Harrow said: “Sadly you’ve experienced this sort of abuse over many years.

“This abuse became personal and unforgivable and there’s no excuse for what they said to you.

“It turned to your mother and at that point you lost it.

“You gave chase and these youths scattered like the cowards they are.

“You cornered one of a group that had thrown things at you.

“I accept at that stage your anger came out.”

'Good boy who lost his temper'

ELDON Lloyd Malcolm’s mother Rose visited court from South London to hear that her son will serve two years in prison before being released on licence.

Fighting back the tears afterwards she said he had been ‘a good boy’ who lost his temper when the group of men offended his family.

She said: “I know what he has done but he was trying so hard.

“He’s always protected me.

“He told me if they called him names he would accept it but as soon as they mentioned me he just went berserk.

“At heart he’s not what he’s been made out to be and I’m very pleased with the judge.”

Defending, Frank Abbott described ‘the most unbelievable racial abuse’.

He said Malcolm accepted his not guilty plea was ‘silly’ and he admits the stabbing.

He said Malcolm had denied it so the court could hear ‘the whole story’.

Judge John Harrow said he had two ‘brackets” of sentencing open to him and had chosen the lower four-to-six years category due to the provocation and the fact that the knives were legitimately in his possession.