Shoplifter stabbed B&M security guard through leg

A shoplifter who stabbed a security guard through the leg with a kitchen knife outside a B&M at the end of a two-day crime spree has been jailed.

Andrzej Mikulski, 27, drove the blade through the guard's thigh after he was confronted outside the store on Carlisle Street in Preston on 26 February.

Police officers had to use a tourniquet to stem the bleeding and the guard was airlifted to hospital for emergency surgery.

Mikulski was found guilty of wounding with intent by a jury at Preston Crown Court after previously pleading guilty to a raft of other offences, and was jailed for 22 years and six months.

The guard had followed Mikulski out of the store after the attacker left without paying.

He was airlifted to Royal Preston Hospital for emergency surgery, where operating staff found the knife had come close to passing completely through his thigh.

Around 45 minutes after the incident, firearms officers at Lancashire Police stopped Mikulski and arrested him on Edward Street.

Andrzej Mikulski was jailed for more than 22 years for attacking a security guard

He had blood stains on his hands and jacket sleeve and was carrying a backpack, the force said.

He was found with a kitchen knife with a 7-inch (19cm) pointed blade, and his clothing and description matched that described by several witnesses at B&M Bargains.

The stabbing was the culmination of a spree of offending by Mikulski in Preston on 25 and 26 of February.

That included stealing a rucksack containing a laptop from the Market Offices on Early Street after pulling out a knife, theft from shops and theft of a pedal cycle.

'Horrendous injury'

Before the trial, he had pleaded guilty to offences of robbery, attempted robbery, three offences of possessing a knife in a public place, and four offences of theft.

At a sentencing hearing earlier, Mikulski was also handed concurrent terms for the other offences.

He will serve 17 years of the 22-year term before being eligible for parole.

"Andrzej Mikulski was prepared to use a knife to stab a man and inflict an horrendous injury on a security guard," said Det Con Alex Akers, from Lancashire Police.

"It was all for the sake of escaping with a basket of goods which he had stolen from B&M Bargains.

"Had it not been for the actions of the police officers and paramedics at the scene, and then the skill of the surgeons, an innocent man might well have lost his life."