A MAN repeatedly stabbed a friend after waking up “disorientated” following a day-long drink and drugs binge.

Gareth Adrian Paine who had been enjoying a day drinking with friends and family, fell asleep on the sofa at the house of his friend, after they had been playing cards in the kitchen.

But, Durham Crown Court heard that on waking he became “aggressive and confrontational”, accusing his partner and others present of “betrayal.”

Paine was told to leave, but went to the kitchen and took two knives from a drawer.

Laurie Scott, prosecuting, said he was told to put them back and his partner took them from him, replacing them in the drawer.

Paine was again asked to leave, but reopened the drawer and took out another, smaller knife, lunging at his friend, raising the knife above his head and stabbing down at him several times.

Miss Scott said the victim tried to fend off the blows and was stabbed on the forearm, to the back of the head and cheek, before a mutual friend intervened and his jacket was torn.

When the attack ended Paine left the house, while the heavily blood-stained victim managed to pick himself up and cross the road to a neighbour’s home in Lilac Crescent, Burnopfield.

Miss Scott told the court an ambulance was called and he was taken to hospital for treatment for the three stab lacerations.

“Thankfully, despite there being a lot of blood, the wounds were relatively shallow.”

Miss Scott said when police arrived, Paine approached an officer, who asked: “Did you do this?”

He replied “yes”, and was handcuffed and taken to custody.

Paine later gave a statement in which he said he acted in self-defence, believing he was going to be attacked by the householder.

The 42-year-old former chef, living recently at a caravan park, on Guisborough Road, Whitby, admitted unlawful wounding and criminal damage, but denied wounding with intent.

During a three-day trial this week he told the court he was not an aggressive person and apologised for the harm caused to his friend of eight years.

“I’m sorry about the injuries and the devastation at what everyone has had to go through, picking up the mess. Everyone can say what they want to say, but I know I didn’t intend to cause the damage that I caused.”

But a jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict to the wounding with intent charge.

Jailing him for 11 years, Judge Simon Hickey said it was a “repeated assault”, when Paine was inebriated through drink and drugs, adding that it was only good fortune that the injuries were not more serious.