MARK Hobson was sacked from his first job when he was just 16 after threatening to stab a workmate, the Evening Press can reveal today.

Vince and Jean Flavell gave the multiple murderer a job at their former butcher's shop in Gowthorpe, Selby, when he was a fresh-faced and shy teenager.

But less than three weeks later, he lost his temper and threatened to attack a terrified colleague with a boning knife.

Until now, it was thought that Hobson's Jekyll and Hyde character did not surface until his late 20s when he started drinking heavily and smoking pot.

But the incident at the butchers' shop happened in 1986, when Hobson, described by his former school pals as polite and friendly, had just left Selby High School, determined to get a job rather than study for A-levels.

Mr and Mrs Flavell had been approached by Hobson's mother, Sandra, who worked next door at the old Hagenbachs bread shop, asking if they would give him a job.

Mrs Flavell said: "It started as a bit of teasing, but quickly got very serious. There was quite a commotion.

"Mark lost his temper. He had a boning knife in his hand and threatened to stab his colleague, who was frightened to death.

"We immediately sent him home and the next morning he came back to the shop as if nothing had happened.

"We told him we didn't want him at the shop any more and he left. We never dreamed he would end up killing four people."

Speaking at her home in Wistow, Mrs Flavell, who is now retired, said the threatened colleague was in his 20s and called Philip - she could not remember his second name.

"The incident came as quite a shock.

"Up 'till then, he had been a very quiet lad and rather shy.

"Mrs Hobson then came in to ask why we had sacked him. When we told her she wouldn't believe us.

"She said Mark would never do anything like that. She left and never spoke to us again."

It was in the same street, Gowthorpe, 16 years later, that Hobson again brandished a knife - this time outside Booze Busters in front of horrified shoppers.

It was just before 11am on March 11, 2002, when he stabbed William Brace, from Selby, five times in broad daylight in front of horrified shoppers, allegedly in an argument over Brace's girlfriend.

Hobson was given community service and a probation order after Judge Scott Wolstenholme accepted it was self-defence, albeit excessive self-defence.

Brace's mother Margaret, of Denison Road, Selby, reacted with fury and disbelief.

She said Hobson should have been jailed after her son suffered a punctured lung and almost lost his life.

Judge Wolstenholme said yesterday he could not comment on the sentence he imposed or the criticism he has faced.

But Peter Farr, of the Office of the Lord Chief Justice, said all sentencing decisions reflected the full range of evidence presented to the court, and a variety of other relevant factors which judges must have regard to, including the statutory framework, Court of Appeal judgments and any mitigating or aggravating factors.

Hobson will be sentenced next month after admitting murdering his girlfriend Claire Sanderson, 27, her twin sister, Diane, in Camblesforth near Selby, and elderly Strensall couple Joan and James Britton.

Updated: 10:04 Wednesday, April 20, 2005