A DANGEROUS criminal who carried out a terrifying axe and knife attack on a Workington couple at their own home has been jailed for 15 years.
Drug addict and high risk offender Tony Joynes, 42, armed himself with the weapons and covered his face before knocking on a patio door at the Coniston Drive address of Lee Iceton and Colleen McCrickard just after midnight on August 21 last year.
Carlisle Crown Court heard Mr Iceton pulled open the door and was greeted by a hooded male wearing gloves and dressed head-to-foot in black brandishing a vicious ice pick-style axe.
During a struggle which ensued, Mr Iceton suffered an ankle fracture as he fell while trying to defend himself and was then stabbed as Joynes produced a knife after being brought to the ground.
His plucky partner, who pulled off the intruder’s face-covering and identified Joynes, was bitten on the hand and also knifed after being struck with the blade as she desperately tried to disarm him.
The couple, both aged in their 30s, were taken to hospital, each having suffered multiple stab wounds, and had since moved away from the area.
Mr Iceton suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety, and had needed significant surgery.
His partner had been unable to work since as a chef. “She is constantly suffering from flashbacks and play-backs in her head of what happened that night,” said prosecutor Geoffrey Lowe.
Joynes denied charges of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and wounding with intent, telling a trial he was armed and disguised in response to threats from Liverpool drug dealers.
But a jury rejected his claims and found Joynes, of no fixed address, unanimously guilty of both offences. The court heard of his troubled upbringing, that he’d spent around 25 years of his life in prison and committed previous serious violence. That included burgling the home of a 93-year-old who was tied up and stabbed with a screwdriver.
Judge Nicholas Barker imposed a 15-year jail term for the latest crimes and added an extended three-year licence period.
“I am satisfied this was a planned visit and a planned attack,” said Judge Barker. “You went there. You were armed and violence erupted immediately.”
The judge concluded: “In my judgement you are a dangerous, unpredictable threat. You pose a significant risk. You have a history of disturbing violence and your previous convictions present a litany of that disturbing and dangerous violence.”
