Love rivals ‘wrestled’ after truth revealed (From The Northern Echo)

Love rivals ‘wrestled’ after truth revealed

7:52am Saturday 4th September 2010 in

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A MAN who found himself entangled in a love triangle flipped when he realised the woman who had asked him to marry her was already engaged.

Emma Hutchinson had proposed to doting Derek More only days before he discovered she was in a long-term relationship with Jamie Langburn.

More went on a drinking session, took a taxi to the home near Darlington Ms Hutchinson shared with Mr Langburn, 26, and burst in with a knife.

A court heard that Mr Langburn knew nothing of his love rival until the night of the incident when More threatened to stab him in the head.

After a struggle between the two, Mr Langburn, who suffered a cut finger and a bite on his arm, managed to throw his attacker out.

More, a 38-year-old railway worker with a string of previous convictions, admitted unlawful wounding and was given a suspended prison sentence.

Defence barrister Rod Hunt urged Judge George Moorhouse not to jail More immediately because of the “unpleasant”

background to the case.

He produced a box of correspondence the couple had shared via social networking website Facebook, and said: “Some of it is fairly hot stuff.”

More found out several days later about Mr Langburn, and travelled from Stockton to the couple’s home in Middleton- St-George, on January 19.

Mr Hunt told Teesside Crown Court: “There she is proposing on the 13th at the same time, it seems, she is still with the unfortunate Mr Langburn.

“You can imagine when the defendant found out about Mr Langburn, having just received that proposal of marriage, he was not in a good mental state.”

More, of Hopetown Lane, Darlington, received a 12- month prison sentence, suspended for two years, with 12 months of probation supervision.

Judge Moorhouse also ordered him to carry out 200 hours of unpaid community work and pay £500 compensation to Mr Langburn.

After the court case, Mr Langburn told The Northern Echo he had broken off his engagement to Ms Hutchinson, who has an eight-year-old son from a previous relationship.

He said he believed the relationship between his former fiance and More had been going on for about nine months.

He said he had been in bed on the morning of the incident and heard someone come up the stairs.

“I jumped out of bed and there he was, on the landing, in a hoodie and a tracksuit, holding this big knife.

“I grabbed it and we had a bit of a wrestle.”

He said he was disappointed More had not been given a more stringent sentence.