Ripon man jailed for stabbing young soldier and biting police officers during "horrifying" scenes

Kyle Harpin, 34, went ballistic after a woman rejected his advances in a bar in the town centre and turned her attention to the victim instead, Leeds Crown Court heard.

Aggrieved by this rejection, Harpin crept up on the victim outside in the street and pulled out a 19 inch blade from the waistband of his trousers, said prosecutor Ben Campbell.He pressed the knife against the victim’s throat, causing a cut to the front of his neck.

The victim walked away but Harpin, who was drunk, followed him down the street.

He then stabbed the young man in the side of his stomach, causing a 4cm puncture wound.

The victim thought he had been punched but later realised he had been stabbed after noticing blood trickling from a wound to the side of his body, said Mr Campbell.

He was taken to Harrogate District Hospital but was discharged the following day after scans revealed no serious or life-threatening injuries.

Mr Campbell said the victim had been out with friends for a night out in Ripon.

By the end of the night, at about 4am on October 16 last year, he got talking to, and then kissed, the woman whom Harpin had tried to chat up in the bar earlier in the evening.

Unbeknown to the victim, Harpin was watching them while concealing a knife inside his waistband.

“(Harpin) approached (the victim) from behind and put the knife to his throat,” said Mr Campbell.

When the victim tried to walk away, Harpin plunged the knife into his side and then jogged off.

The victim, who was also drunk, said it felt “like a punch to the left side of his ribs” but then “looked down and could see he was bleeding”.

His friends took him to his army camp nearby where he was treated in the guard room before being taken to hospital where medical staff applied stereo strips to his neck and a puncture dressing to the torso wound.

Harpin, of Priest Lane, Ripon, was arrested and became “agitated and aggressive” with officers as they escorted him to custody, repeatedly banging his head against the police van and swearing at them.

He was taken to Harrogate Hospital due to his repeated butting of the police vehicle.

His handcuffs were removed to allow staff to check his blood pressure, but Harpin then threatened to punch the officers, before lunging at one of them and grabbing an officer by the throat in a “choke-hold”.

“He then shouted repeatedly that he was going to bite the nose from her face,” added Mr Campbell.

He then tried to headbutt another officer before biting him on the hand. Harpin was arrested again and continued to hurl abuse at officers, including racial slurs.

“He was making other threats that he would rape the wives of a police officer,” said Mr Campbell.

Police found the knife in an alleyway in Ripon which was encased in a black sheath.

Harpin was initially charged with attempted murder of the stab victim but denied this and ultimately offered a plea to an alternative charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

This plea was accepted by the prosecution and the attempted-murder charge was dropped.

He was also charged with carrying a blade, threatening a person with a knife, two counts of assaulting a police officer and racially aggravated threatening behaviour towards one of the constables.

He admitted the offences and appeared for sentence via video link today (February 21).

The court heard he had 23 previous convictions for over 30 offences dating back 20 years including theft, assaulting and resisting police officers, public disorder and battery.

Defence barrister Robert Mochrie said Harpin had drug and alcohol issues in the past and been diagnosed with mental health problems following a troubled upbringing, but conceded that the incident in Ripon was a “horrifying scene”.

Judge Tom Bayliss KC said although Harpin was “no stranger to trouble with the police”, his latest offences were “of a different order” to those he had committed in the past.

“Because what you have now demonstrated is that you are perfectly prepared to go out at night on the streets of Ripon armed with a knife and to threaten people with it and to use it to inflict injury or serious injury,” added the judge.

He said the young soldier “must have been terrified” when Harpin drew out the blade and noted that Harpin had “already threatened others with it”.

“It’s purely good fortune that he did not suffer more serious injuries,” said Mr Bayliss.

He said he was “quite satisfied” that Harpin posed a risk of harm to the public and therefore found him to be a dangerous offender in the eyes of the law.

Harpin, who clutched Rosary beads during his court appearance from a custody suite, was jailed for four years and nine months and was told he would only become eligible for parole two-thirds the way through that sentence, and only then if the Parole Board deemed him fit to be released.

As a dangerous offender, Harpin was also ordered to serve an extended three-year period on prison licence.