Terence Ryan jailed for Swindon samurai sword attack

Terence Ryan was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison at Swindon Crown Court

A man who punctured his friend's lung with a samurai sword in a row over his mother's painkillers has been jailed.

Terence Ryan, 40, stabbed Lee Sparks in the chest after accusing him of stealing his mother's morphine at her home in Swindon.

Ryan, of no fixed abode, was found guilty of grievous bodily harm with intent during a trial in July.

He was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison at Swindon Crown Court.

Ryan and Mr Sparks had been drinking heavily and smoking cannabis at Ryan's mother's house in Exeter Street on 7 February, the court heard.

Ryan went to make a sandwich and when he came back he found a cupboard door open where his mother's prescribed medication was kept.

He accused Mr Sparks of stealing the drugs and attacked him with the 18in (45cm) weapon.

Police recovered a samurai sword used in the attack

Officers from Wiltshire Police later found Mr Sparks bleeding heavily near The Glue Pot pub and Ryan was arrested.

Mr Sparks suffered a punctured lung and cuts to his hand and chest in the attack, and spent four days in Swindon's Great Western Hospital.

Judge Peter Crabtree said Ryan, who suffers from PTSD and anxiety, was in "an angry and aggressive state" when he attacked Mr Sparks with the sword and threatened to kill him.

It was a "fast moving situation" in which Ryan "in a single blow, deliberately jabbed" Sparks "intending very serious harm", Judge Crabtree said.