Bolton knifeman stabbed dog walker and dog after row

Gareth Llewelleyn, 42, came across the man who was out walking his dog on Boxing Day last December.

Bolton Crown Court heard how heated words were exchanged when the man asked for his £10, which he had lent to Llewelleyn back, leading the defendant to get a knife from a nearby house.

Prosecutor Brian Berlyne said: “A highly dangerous weapon was used, not only a knife but it's clear from the footage and the description of witnesses it was a large knife.”

Mr Berlyne told the court how the incident erupted between 9.15pm and 9.30pm on the evening of December 26 last year in Bolton.

The case was heard at Bolton Crown Court (Image: Newsquest)

After coming back out of the house armed with a kitchen knife, Llewelleyn ended up stabbing the dog to the neck and its owner to the chest.

Llewelleyn, who has 26 previous convictions including for robbery and drugs supply, was already serving an 18-month community order at the time.

He was also three months into a 12-week prison sentence that had been suspended for 12 months.

He was arrested soon after and eventually pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding, possession of a knife in a public place and to causing unnecessary suffering to animals.

Christopher Field, defending, said that Llewellyn had earned credit for his guilty plea, having admitted his crimes about 10 weeks before what would have been his trial.

He said he “would not quibble” about the seriousness of the 42-year-old’s crimes but said that since his arrest, Llewellyn had tried to “make better of himself” while on remand in prison.

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Mr Field said that he was now on a drug treatment programme and was taking a course in plastering.

Recorder Anna Pope accepted that Llewellyn, of no fixed abode, was entitled to credit for pleading guilty but reminded him of the devastating affect he had wrought on his victim.

She said that the dog walker was “someone who was entitled to feel safe within his own community” and that Llewellyn had reacted to only “limited provocation.”

Recorder Pope jailed Llewellyn for a total of 28 months and issued a 10-year restraining order forbidding him from contacting or going near his victim or his partner.