Exclusive: Dad knifed in Earlsheaton party brawl speaks after attacker is jailed

Father-of-one Jonny Ramsden suffered four puncture wounds to his chest and abdomen, the deepest of which was 12cm.

He has spoken exclusively to the Reporter after his attacker was caged this week.

Mr Ramsden needed two major operations and a blood transplant when he was left with just one pint of blood circulating his body – the usual average for an adult is eight-and-a-half to 12.5 pints.

“It didn’t really sink in until I got out of hospital. I felt helpless really,” he said.

“I had split up with my partner just before it happened. I was living on my own, weak and poorly, and on loads of tablets. It was then that it sunk in how bad the incident was.”

Mr Ramsden, 25, and a friend went to a house party in Earlsheaton in the early hours of June 16.

When uninvited guest Jack Allen started shouting and banging at the door, Mr Ramsden said he would call the police. Allen lashed out and a fight began which spilled onto Syke Street.

The fight was broken up, but Allen, 19, attacked Mr Ramsden again as he tried to walk away.

“I did see his hand in his pocket when he came towards me, but it happened so fast,” Mr Ramsden said.

“I looked at my stomach and saw blood coming out. I just lost all strength. I remember waking up in shock on the floor, shaking and freezing, but that was only for a few minutes. The next thing I was in hospital.”

Allen, of Navigation Gardens, Thornhill Lees, was jailed on Friday for at least four-and-a half years for the attack and another incident on New Year’s Eve.

Mr Ramsden, of Wakefield Road, Dewsbury, has mixed feelings about the sentence handed down.

“I’m disappointed really,” he said. “I was close to death, but I suppose as long as he learns from what he’s done and doesn’t carry weapons again it doesn’t matter. It’s as long as it doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

Pick up a copy of today’s Reporter for more on the court case and the judge’s comments.