A BASINGSTOKE attacker who stabbed a drunk man during an early morning altercation has been jailed for more than eight years.

Adam Christopher Philip, 30, was involved in an argument with Steven McMenamin over accusations that he had been taking advantage of his brother Malcolm, who has learning difficulties following a car crash.

On March 21 Mr McMenamin walked in a drunken state to Philip’s flat at the Brighton Hill Centre to discuss the claims, arriving at just after 1am.

He pressed the buzzer up to 10 times and told the 30-year-old to “to stay away from Malcom or he would kill him”.

During a trial at Winchester Crown Court this week he said he had no intention of killing Philip and it was “just a threat”, but it aggravated his attacker to confront him face to face while holding a knife.

The jury were shown CCTV capturing the attack and Philip stabbing his victim with the kitchen knife.

In total, Mr McMenamin was stabbed six times, once in his arm and the rest in his abdomen and chest.

Today (Wednesday) Philip was found guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and being in possession of bladed article in a public place without lawful authority.

He was found not guilty of unlawfully and maliciously wounding Mr McMenamin.

Giving evidence during the case Mr McMenamin said: “He [Philip] walked down the stairs hastily with a knife in his hand. I didn’t really know about anything really I just kind froze. He looked really angry and annoyed.

“I didn’t realise I was stabbed until I felt my jumper going red.”

Philip’s defence was that five of the stab wounds were caused by Mr McMenamin walking into the knife after he was restrained by a friend, while the first was an accident caused by the victim moving towards him.

He also said that his victim had been harassing him for months.

Sentencing him, His Honour Judge Keith Cutler said: “You took your knife down there, there was an exchange of words, there was this assault using your knife.

"He [Mr McMenamin] was drunk, he was clearly much shorter than you in height and he was posing no physical threat to you at all."

Philip was jailed for eight years for the attack and given a further two months as the incident was committed while on a suspended sentence.