Shocking moment grandfather, 61, stabs a stranger in the neck after demanding money in front of drinkers at busy Wetherspoon pub
Published: 15:37, 5 January 2024 | Updated: 16:21, 5 January 2024
This is the shocking moment a grandfather stabbed a stranger in the neck after demanding money from him inside a busy Wetherspoon pub.
Ian Magee, 61, launched the unprovoked attack on Nicholas Watkins, 48, who was sat trying to enjoy a pint at the Standing Order pub in Derby city centre on April 6, 2023.
A court heard the pensioner had drunk ‘six or seven’ pints of cider when he approached Mr Watkins and threatened to stab him in the neck if he didn’t hand over ‘some money’.
Chilling CCTV captured the grandfather-of-11 plunging the blade into the neck of Mr Watkins in front of other drinkers, who were seemingly unaware of the horror that was unfolding, before walking out as if nothing had happened.
Mr Watkins was given life-saving treatment by staff and other customers and luckily survived the attack, which left him depressed and suffering repeated nightmares about being killed.
Ian Magee, 61, launched the unprovoked attack on Nicholas Watkins, 48, who was sat trying to enjoy a pint at the Standing Order pub in Derby city centre on April 6, 2023
A court heard Magee had drank ‘six or seven’ pints of cider when he approached Mr Watkins who was sat on a bar stool and threatened to stab him in the neck
Magee was charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
He denied the charge but was convicted at Derby Crown Court by a jury who took less than two hours to find him guilty in November last year.
On Wednesday, Magee, of Alvaston, Derbyshire, was jailed for eight years with an extended four-year licence period at Leicester Crown Court.
In a victim impact statement, Mr Watkins told how he had been left depressed and suffering repeated nightmares about being killed.
He said: ‘This incident has caused me to feel depressed. I don’t really go anywhere anymore. I don’t go to town or pubs.
I don’t see the people I used to see anymore.
‘Since I was stabbed, I have lost feeling in the jaw area and neck on the left side which is where I was stabbed – and I can’t feel my bottom lip or my chin.
‘I have nightmares all the time and I can’t sleep at night. I wake up every 5 or 10 minutes. I have been seen to be shaking in my sleep.
‘I dream about being stabbed, I feel a pain in my neck and then I feel like I’m on the floor and then I’m dying and then I am being shook.
‘I don’t understand it or why it has happened to me.
It has changed my life.’
Ian Magee can be seen talking to Nicholas Watkin as he sat with a pint at the Standing Order pub in Derby city centre on April 6, 2023
Magee suddenly brandishes a pocket knife and shows it to Mr Watkin.
A court heard that Magee threatened to stab him in the neck if he didn’t hand over some money
Magee then plunges the knife into Mr Watkin’s neck leaving him with a serious neck wound
Magee then silently walks out of the busy pub as if nothing had happened, with Mr Watkin later given life-saving treatment by staff and other customers
A court heard Magee approached Mr Watkins who was sat on a bar stool and demanded: ‘Give me some money or I will stab you.’
Temporary Detective Constable Cathryn Mansfield, of Derbyshire Police, said: ‘This was an utterly appalling attack in the middle of the afternoon in a crowded city centre pub.
‘For reasons that only Ian Magee knows he took a knife out of his pocket and delivered a potentially fatal stab wound.
‘There was no aggression from his victim and certainly nothing that could have warranted the violence used by Magee.’
‘As was heard from the victim in court the impact on him has been devastating and continues to this day.
‘I hope that today’s sentencing brings this most horrendous chapter to a close and allows him to begin to come to terms with the incident and move on from this ordeal.
‘I would also like to thank the staff, customers, and first responders whose actions that day I have no doubt saved this man’s life.’
References
- ^ Dan Woodland (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Wetherspoons (www.dailymail.co.uk)