Nottingham student avoids prison 'by skin of teeth' for knife threat inside city centre flat

This young Nottingham Trent University student has escaped prison “by the skin of his teeth” for threatening another man with a knife at the accommodation block where he lived in the city centre. Nottingham Crown Court heard how Daniel Pritchard held the blade almost to the victim’s neck leaving him terrified he might be stabbed.

The pair had ended up in a confrontation after the then 19-year-old defendant had posted derogatory comments about the other man on a group chat. And the victim was so shaken by the encounter, he told how he planned to move back to Lincolnshire to complete his studies from home.

Handing Pritchard a suspended sentence, Judge Michael Auty KC said: “Society has become blighted by young people who arm themselves with knives and whether it is inside a property or outside, it has become an all too familiar sight. And when people end up in a white-hot rage and common sense goes then that is when tragedies occur and people like your parents sit in mortuaries around this country cradling the corpse of the person they have loved and raised because some fool could not control his anger and used a knife.

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“That is why it is so serious. But what I am about to do to you, many who read a report on this case, will think I have taken leave of my senses.

“Nothing could be further from the truth because punishment is also about rehabilitation as well. You have escaped today by the skin of your teeth, it won’t happen again.”

Julia King, prosecuting, said the offence took place at the student accommodation where Pritchard was then living in Talbot Street, in the city centre, on March 19, 2023. She said the victim, also an NTU student, was visiting and there had been plans to go to Rock City but during the evening the defendant sent a Snapchat picture to a group chat with derogatory comments and there was a confrontation between the pair in the kitchen.

The prosecutor said: “The defendant had a large silver kitchen knife in his hand, the victim said to him (about the message) ‘what have you done that for?’ and the defendant shoved him hard and pushed him onto the rectangular kitchen table.

“His (the victim’s) head was against the wall and the defendant raised his right hand, still holding the knife towards him. The victim later said ‘all I could see was the knife, it was so close to my skin.”

Miss King said the man was able to get away and locked himself in a room until the scene was safe. She said he then went to the security room in the block of flats, called 999, the police then arrived and arrested Pritchard.

He later pleaded guilty to threatening another with a weapon in a private place and has no previous convictions of any kind. Miss King said: “Following the incident, the victim said he planned to move back to Lincolnshire and finish his studies from there, commuting into Nottingham.”

Alex Wolfson, mitigating, said his client was just 19 at the time of the offence and has not been in any trouble since. He said:”He is under no illusion as to how serious the courts take knife crime and what the courts sentencing powers are.

“He has kept down a job and has come to court with money he has saved for any compensation or costs (he might be ordered to pay).”

The judge jailed the defendant for 18 months, suspended for two years, with 200 hours unpaid work and 25 rehabilitation sessions. He also ordered him to pay £1,000 compensation to the victim and £1,000 court costs.