Derby: Man jailed for unprovoked stabbing in crowded pub

Police said Ian Magee's victim had shown no aggression towards him

A man has been jailed for stabbing another man in the neck in a busy pub.

Ian Magee launched an attack on his victim in the Standing Order, in Derby city centre, seriously wounding him with a pocket knife.

Derbyshire Police described the stabbing, on 6 April 2023, as "appalling" and "unprovoked".

Magee, 61, from Alvaston, Derby, was jailed for eight years, with a further four years on licence, when he appeared at Leicester Crown Court on Thursday.

He had denied wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm but was convicted after a trial in October.

Police said staff and customers helped saved the victim's life by tending to him after the attack

In a statement released by Derbyshire Police, the 48-year-old victim said he had been left depressed by the attack and had lost the feeling in his jaw, chin and bottom lip.

He said: "I have nightmares all the time and I can't sleep at night. I wake up every five 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."

Temporary Det Con Cathryn Mansfield, who led the investigation, 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 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."

She thanked pub staff, customers, and first responders, who she said had treated the victim immediately after the attack and saved his life.