Man stabbed two cousins in Erdington after walking in on one being 'intimate' with his ex

A man stabbed two cousins in a jealous rage after walking in on one of them being 'intimate' with his ex-girlfriend on a sofa. Christopher O'Brien had seen his 'estranged' partner and gave her money to go out.

But as the 40-year-old downed ten cans of Budweiser at his home his suspicions consumed him and he drove around to the woman's sister address in Erdington. After concluding his former girlfriend was with another man he stormed in, recording with his mobile phone and saw her on the living room sofa with a male, whose cousin was with the woman's sister upstairs.

Birmingham Crown Court heard O'Brien blurted out 'are you serious?' before proceeding to chase the two men, in their 20s. After grabbing a knife from the kitchen he stabbed one of them in the arm as he fled and clambered over a fence to escape.

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He then turned his attention to the other, who had been with his ex, and stabbed him through the back causing his lung to collapse as well as a cut to his liver. Both victims survived the attack but have been left traumatised.

Following a trial O'Brien was found guilty of two counts of wounding with intent after being cleared of attempted murder charges. He was also convicted of drink-driving, driving without a licence and driving without insurance. O'Brien, from Bridge Street, Wolverhampton, was sentenced to 15 years and three months as well as banned from the road for three years from the point of his release.

Judge Peter Cooke concluded he was not a violent man by nature despite the 'wicked' attack. It took place in the early hours of October 8 last year. O'Brien had seen his ex the previous day and given her some money. That night she went out with her sister in Sutton Coldfield and they met the two cousins who went back home with them.

Prosecutor Ben Williams said: "He accepted their relationship was at best in difficulty although he was still living in the family home and had been sleeping on the sofa. They were separated or estranged.

"However he accepted having been drinking the defendant had begun to wonder what she was up to and had gone to the address to investigate. He wasn't sure initially whether it was her with the young man on the sofa. When he saw the sister come downstairs he knew it couldn't be her and must have been (his ex-partner).

"He made his way into the house with his phone videoing. Aiming a rather angry enquiry at her he said 'are you serious?'. We saw her relatively defiant response."

O'Brien grabbed a knife from the kitchen and tried to reach the cousin who had been on the sofa with his ex. The male ended up trying to escape out of a window and cut his arm in the process.

O'Brien then chased the other cousin who had come downstairs and swung the knife slashing him on the arm. The male managed to flee out of the back door, down the garden and over the fence. The blade the defendant was holding broke and he grabbed another as he returned to confront the first cousin again.

Despite a door blocked with a cushion being in their way O'Brien managed to inflict a stab wound to his back which later caused the victim to collapse after he had run away from the property. He required surgical intervention to reinflate his lung.

In a statement he said he felt sick every time he thought about the attack and could not sleep. His cousin, who sustain the slash wound to his arm, said: "I still struggle to comprehend having gone out for a quiet night with my cousin we nearly ended up losing our lives. I don't know why he chose to come into the house and attack us with knives."

Carl Templar-Vasey, defending, said: "Mr O'Brien to go in to that address and see the situation with the mother of his children he still had a strong connection to and he still hadn't given up hope that the relationship had ended, led to what can only be described as a considerable rush of blood to the head."

He added O'Brien had been a 'model prisoner' while in custody on remand, had expressed his remorse and extended his apologies to the two cousins because it had 'never really been about them'. When it was pointed out that the defendant denied his actions and claimed self-defence at trial Mr Templar-Vasey said that O'Brien had since had time to reflect on the incident which he accepted he caused by going around in the first place.

Passing sentence Judge Cooke said: "You are not by character a violent man but you plainly had a serious loss of control within you."

He concluded O'Brien was not dangerous and had acted in 'emotional extremis' when faced with an 'unusual combination of events' which were unlikely to be repeated in the future. The judge added: "You demonstrated if the right buttons are pressed you can have an emphatic and dramatic loss of control but you have got to the age of 40 without doing anything like this."