Leigh Park man jailed for 'astonishingly cruel' stabbing and eye gouging of friend at home

Army hopeful Harry Vincent, 22, slashed Callum Barker’s wrist before smashing his glasses and stabbing him in both knees in a flat in Bedhampton Road, Bedhampton.

Vincent then forced his bleeding friend to take a shower - only to jump him again, trying to gouge his eyes out.

When his victim tried to call police, Vincent snatched his phone away.

The repeated attacks lasted for most of April 9, 2019, and Vincent has given no clue as to why he stabbed the friend he was set to provide a home to in his father’s flat.

Portsmouth Crown Court heard the victim didn’t go out for six weeks and lost £2,000 in earnings.

Jailing Vincent for five years and six months, judge David Melville QC said: ‘It was astonishingly cruel - it’s never been explained and frankly it’s almost impossible to understand why you behaved how you did on that day.

‘You treated him in a disgraceful, cruel and violent way.’

Vincent denied wounding with intent, claiming self-defence, but was convicted by majority at a jury trial in November where he did not give evidence.

On Friday the court heard he was angry at the lack of food at home, and his parents failed to deliver any, the judge added.

Opening the prosecution case, Adrian Fleming said: ‘It seems that for reasons that may still be unclear, Mr Vincent became extremely angry with Callum Barker, who had been his friend for some years.

‘It ended up with Mr Vincent using a black ceramic knife, first of all cutting and slashing Callum Barker’s arm (causing) quite a substantial slash wound on his arm.

‘He then broke Callum Barker’s glasses and smashed them. He then stabbed Callum Barker in both knees with a different knife.

‘There was a profuse amount of bleeding. (He) was told to go and have a shower and as he came out of the shower, Harry Vincent then forced his fingers in Callum Barker’s eyes, causing some injury, and indeed not only to his eyes but to his nose which required stitches.

‘Mr Barker made an attempt to call the police but Mr Vincent took the phone off him and Callum Barker was unconscious for some period of time, maybe hours and hours.’

The victim was then able to call an ambulance police and his brother.

Vincent, of Dunsbury Way, Leigh Park, fled having taken an ‘overwhelming’ amount of valium - returning and climbing to the building’s roof, behaving badly in front of police.

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Mr Barker suffered a 2cm wound on each knee, a 3cm wound on his wrist, abrasions on his eyes and a laceration to his nose.

Kate Blumgart, mitigating, said references indicated mechanic Vincent was intelligent, cared for animals, and has a ‘life full of opportunity ahead of him’.

He denies having mental health problems. He did attempt suicide in 2018 following being stabbed at the age of 17 in an unprovoked attack.

Judge Melville ruled the case involved greater harm, but took the nine-to-16-year sentencing range down to six years due to his age, and cut it by six months due to the effect of Covid-19 in prisons.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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