A MAN stabbed a “junkie” to “teach him a lesson” for taking money from his former partner to buy drugs and alcohol, a jury has heard.

Richard Emblow, 46, said he “snapped” and confronted Scott Hacking after trying to talk to him about the way he was treating Catherine Hogan.

Mr Hacking was repeatedly stabbed after being struck by a car on Kirkgate, Shipley, on the afternoon of July 23 last year.

Emblow told Bradford Crown Court yesterday that while he had stabbed him three times in the leg, he had never intended to kill him.

He has admitted wounding Mr Hackett with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm, but denies a charge of attempted murder.

Emblow said he and Miss Hogan had known each other for 15 years and were “like a married couple”, telling the jury he “loved her to bits.”

By July last year, he said she had moved out of their shared address and been taken into a secure nursing home suffering from manic depression and schizophrenia.

Emblow said Mr Hacking was taking money from the “vulnerable” Miss Hogan to buy himself heroin, cocaine, and alcohol.

“It was easy pickings for him, he was a drug addict,” he said.

“I didn’t know what to do about the situation, no-one wanted to help me.”

On July 23, Emblow walked into Shipley from his home in Bradford Road, Bingley, to collect prescription medication from Boots.

He said he then walked over to a grassed area near the town’s Baptist church where Mr Hacking was with his friend Jason Parkinson.

Emblow said he tried to talk about the situation with Miss Hogan, also a drug addict, while Mr Hacking was injecting heroin into his leg.

“I was talking about Cath, but I was doing his head in because he knew the money would stop,” he said.

“He said if you don’t shut up, I’m going to do you in.”

Emblow told the jury that at this point, he saw a lock knife on the floor and picked it up.

Admitting he had “lunged” at Mr Hacking with the knife, Emblow said: “I just wanted to scare him so I didn’t get stabbed myself.”

He then said Mr Hacking followed him as he set off walking towards Saltaire, telling him: “When you get home you’re a dead man, you’re finished.”

Emblow said he then took the knife out of his pocket and after the pair both walked into the road, Hacking was hit by a car.

Asked what happened next he said: “I was on top of him. It all just happened so quick. I stabbed him in the leg three times.”

Emblow, who also admitted to the jury he had been a drug user for 20 years, said he then got off his victim and broke down “crying hysterically” on the floor outside a nearby shop.

Asked what he was thinking during the attack, he said: “I knew the message would get out to him and the rest of the junkies to leave Catherine alone for good. It was to teach him a lesson.”

Questioned by prosecutor Patrick Palmer, Emblow denied concealing the knife in his black leather jacket or having any plans to conduct a pre-meditated attack.

“I had no intention to do anything to Scott that day except to talk,” he said.

Emblow repeatedly told the jury he had stabbed Mr Hacking three times in the leg, but said he “did not know” how the stab wound to the chest had occurred, stating it could have happened during the incidents in the garden or the road.

Asked if he meant to kill Mr Hacking, Emblow said: “No, by doing it in the leg, I knew he’d survive.

“I couldn’t get through to him and when he threatened me, I snapped.

“I just know I had no intentions of hurting the guy. I wasn’t trying to kill him.”

The trial continues.

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