A judge has ordered a specialist report to assess the potential future danger posed by a man who will be sentenced next month after a stabbing in Alston.
When Saul Shepherd, 20, appeared at Carlisle Crown Court in front of Judge Nicholas Barker, he pleaded guilty to two offences.
These were an aggravated burglary which was committed in the Park View Lane area of Alston on August 28 and wounding a man with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm on September 11.
In a statement released in the aftermath of an incident on the latter date, a Cumbria Constabulary spokesman said: “Cumbria police were called shortly after 8.20pm to a report that a man had been stabbed in the abdomen outside the Victoria Inn in Alston.
“The victim, a man in his 30s from Alston, was taken to Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.”
At that time, the man was said to remain in hospital in a condition described as critical but stable.
At a previous magistrates’ court hearing, Shepherd admitted two counts of illegally possessing bladed articles in public.
Court papers show these were a machete, also at Park View Lane on August 28 and a folding lock knife in Alston’s Front Street on September 11.
Judge Barker ordered the preparation of a probation service pre-sentence report.
This will assess the likely risk that Shepherd poses to the public of committing serious offences in the future.
The case was adjourned and Shepherd, of Lambsgate Farm, near Alston, is due to be sentenced by Judge Barker at the crown court on November 25.
Until then he was remanded in custody.
