A POOLE man who scarred a teenager for life after slashing him across the face with a Stanley knife has been jailed for four years.

Tony Wilkinson, 24, from Merrow Avenue, was high on crack cocaine and alcohol when he launched an unprovoked attack on a 17-year-old youth.

The teenager needed 19 stitches for gashes up to 12cm long, and was left permanently scarred after the incident.

A jury at Bournemouth Crown Court later found Wilkinson guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Sentencing Wilkinson, Recorder Peter Wright told him: "This assault was a serious case of intentional violence.

"You lashed out with a Stanley knife causing severe injury to a defenceless young man."

It was the latest in a string of convictions for offences including assault, possessing offensive weapons and affray.

Wilkinson also pleaded guilty to a charge of dangerous driving after he was involved in a "horrifying" police car chase through the streets of Boscombe on April 8 this year.

With a police car in pursuit, the 24-year-old drove a Saab car at high speed around the area, ignoring traffic signals and crashing into other cars.

He eventually abandoned the Saab and made off, but the next day a police patrol spotted Wilkinson walking along the road in Boscombe.

Mr Wright said: "There is no doubt that this was a incident of horrifying dangerous driving which put the public at severe risk."

He sentenced Wilkinson to 15 months in prison for the offence, to run concurrently.

In mitigation, defence counsel Stewart Patterson said Wilkinson was put into care when he was four years old, and had been introduced to drugs and alcohol at an early age.

"At the time of the wounding offence, he was addicted to crack cocaine," he said.

Since then, he has been determined to change his life and start afresh, added Mr Patterson.

But Mr Wright said the offences were so serious that he had no option but to impose an appropriate custodial sentence.

First published: November 18