A KNIFEMAN was given a "remarkably lenient" sentence after a judge told him: "I would like to not send you to prison, but I can't do that."

Judge Peter Bowers jailed Darren Hood for 15 months for the life-threatening attack.

The judge said the circumstances of the incident were unique and he had to take into account Hood's impeccable past and what he had already lost.

Teesside Crown Court heard that alarm fitter Hood had been sacked and forced to flee his home with his wife because of local hostility.

Judge Bowers was also told that the 24-year-old had been the victim of a sustained attack on the same estate six months before the stabbing.

Peter Makepeace, mitigating, said Hood was repeatedly kicked in the head and metal plates had to be inserted to repair the damage.

The earlier attack on the Easterside estate, in Middlesbrough, had made Hood afraid in his neighbourhood and affected his behaviour on January 21.

At about 3.30am, he woke to hear his then-girlfriend and other family members screaming as they barricaded the front door to stop a drunk battering his way into their home.

Hood looked from his bedroom window and saw his brother, Jamie, fighting with the party gatecrasher, local man Michael Smith, who had been thrown out after turning up uninvited.

The court heard that Hood got a knife from the kitchen and stabbed passer-by Simon Cranston because he thought he was involved in the trouble, but he had been trying to stop the dispute.

The 26-year-old, who was walking from his mother's to a friend's home to watch a boxing match on television, was stabbed five times.

One of the three wounds to his chest narrowly missed his heart and, after collapsing from heavy blood loss, he was saved by prompt medical attention.

Hood was originally charged with attempted murder, but admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm when he was due to stand trial last month.

Mr Makepeace said Hood had misinterpreted what was happening on the doorstep of his Hesketh Avenue home and accepted he had used excessive force.

Judge Bowers heard that Hood and his wife Leanne never returned to their home after the incident, and it has since been vandalised and burgled. They now live in Elmwood, Coulby Newham.

The judge told Hood: "It is quite clear that on your perception of events that night, you were entitled to use reasonable force to defend your brother, family, partner and home.

"The circumstances here are highly unusual and probably unique . . . but I am still left with a very serious matter because using a knife is one of the most extreme forms of violence.

"The cause of the trouble has got away scot free as far as I can see. A drunk, aggressive gatecrasher looking for trouble, when asked to leave, violent. He persisted with the attack even after Mr Cranston had been stabbed.

That's why your perception of events was justifiable."