A knifeman who stabbed a York father trying to protect his son could kill in the future, a judge has warned.

The incident outside a house in Clifton was the second time Jordan Dobson had knifed a man in the street, York Crown Court heard.

Andrew Semple, prosecuting, said Dobson and his friend Sheldon Scott shouted at the house where the victim’s son was sheltering: “I’m  going to come through the door, I’m going to smash your face in in front of your girlfriend, which will be embarrassing."

The son called his father for help and when the father arrived and tried to get the two friends away from the house, Dobson stabbed him in the abdomen with a knife which had a 10-inch blade.

Dobson also chased the son down the side of the house when he came back out into the street.

The knifeman was jailed for 80 months in 2020 for stabbing a stranger in the street and finished his prison parole from that sentence 11 days before the Clifton stabbing.


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“You decided to deliberately arm yourself with a weapon on a second occasion,” Judge Simon Hickey told him.

“You knew exactly what you were doing. It is only luck in both these incidents you haven’t killed someone or changed their lives. You may well do that in future, in my judgement.”

He declared Dobson a dangerous offender and jailed him for six years plus three years’ extended prison licence.

Dobson, 25, of Peterhill Drive, Clifton, denied wounding with intent, claiming to a York jury in July that he had an alibi, but was convicted at the end of his trial.

Both Scott, 21, also of Peterhill Drive, Clifton, and Dobson denied affray but were convicted.

Scott was given an 18-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months on condition he does 46 days’ rehabilitative activities. The judge said he accepted Scott had been unaware Dobson had brought the knife.

Both men were made subject to a 10-year restraining order banning them from the Kingsway North area and contacting or mentioning on social media the victim and other prosecution witnesses.

Mr Semple said the victim’s son and his girlfriend were vaping on a bench in Kingsway North late on February 16 when Scott arrived and repeatedly challenged the son to a fight.

The son declined and Scott phoned Dobson, who arrived within minutes with the knife.

The son and girlfriend retreated inside the house and watched from an upstairs window as the two men outside made their threats.

The father suffered a wound but no serious internal injury.

For Dobson, Jordan Millican said he had mild learning difficulties and used cocaine and cannabis which could have made him more prone to behave in the way he had.

For Scott, Rhianydd Clement said he had an anti-social personality disorder, emotional difficulties and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. 

He had not been taking his medication at the time of the Clifton incident because he didn’t like the way it affected him and had resorted to crack cocaine and cannabis.

Since then, he had started taking medication again and no longer took crack cocaine. His family were supporting him.