A TEENAGER has been locked up for nearly five years after he stabbed another man twice in the chest during a street brawl in Chineham.

Neighbours awoke to screaming and shouting after Nathan Moroncini plunged a knife into the chest of Perry Clarke at 7.30am on Tuesday, October 15 last year.

The 27-year-old victim was treated at Basingstoke hospital where doctors initially feared the knife wounds had gone close to the pericardium - the fluid-filled sac that surrounds the heart.

Winchester Crown Court heard that violence flared after Moroncini, 18, accompanied Ciaran Boyle, 19, to a house in St Joseph's Crescent, Chineham, for Boyle to collect clothes from an ex-partner.

Stuart Ellacott, prosecuting, said that when they got there, the two teenagers got caught up in a “heated argument” in the street with Mr Clarke and Michael Paice, who had both been staying at the house.

Mr Paice described seeing Moroncini lifting up his shirt to reveal a knife tucked in his waistband, before he was knocked to the ground and kicked to the head by Boyle.

Mr Ellacott added: “Clarke heard someone shout about a knife, and described Moroncini lunging towards him before running down the road.

“He did not feel pain at that point but a little while afterwards, someone said he was bleeding and he found two stab wounds in his chest, and went to hospital.”

The court heard that the two knife wounds were deep but, luckily, did not cause serious injury, and Mr Clarke discharged himself from hospital.

Moroncini, of Culver Road, Kings Furlong, Basingstoke, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent, while Boyle, of St Peter's Road, South Ham, Basingstoke, pleaded guilty to common assault and admitted a breach of a suspended sentence.

Judge Guy Boney told Moroncini: “The fact is that the taking of a knife to the scene and the use of it makes your case terribly serious. A knife carried is all too often a knife used, and you are lucky that the knife did not go into the heart.”

Moroncini was sentenced to four years and eight months in a young offenders institution, with an extended licence period of three years to protect the public.

Boyle received a four-and-a-half month sentence for common assault and his breach of a suspended sentence.

After the hearing, Detective Constable Steve Kettle, of Basingstoke CID, said: “This was an extremely violent attack involving a knife, and the injuries sustained by the victim, although serious, could have been much worse.

“The sentences ordered by the judge in this case reflect the nature of the offence, and demonstrates how seriously we take incidents of knife crime.”