A SCISSORS-wielding man has been found guilty of stabbing a woman who tried to stop a street attack near Newton Abbot’s war memorial.
Joshua Kettle terrified passers-by in St Paul’s Road by kicking and punching one man and then stabbing the woman.
His behaviour was so alarming that one witness who tried to calm him, described him to police as ‘the crazy man’.
Kettle was homeless and had aggravated pre-existing mental health conditions by drinking alcohol and taking drugs which led him to act violently and unpredictability.
He had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act two months before but released from Langdon Hospital and was living on the streets in Newton Abbot, where he had previously lived.
The woman he stabbed suffered injuries to her head and arms which bystanders thought had been caused by a knife but which turned out to have been inflicted by a pair of scissors, recovered by police at the scene.
Kettle went on to assault a police officer at the custody suite the next day by spitting at them, Exeter Crown Court was told.
The 29-year-old, previously of Sandringham Road, Newton Abbot, but now of no fixed address, denied but was found guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, possession of a bladed article, affray and assaulting an emergency worker.
Recorder Ms Chloe Pawson-Pounds adjourned sentence until July and asked the probation service to carry out an assessment of the danger Kettle poses to the public. She remanded him in custody.
During the trial the jury heard Kettle attacked a man near the War Memorial on February 5 and then confronted passers-by who tried to intervene, producing a pair of scissors and stabbing a woman.
He threatened others who confronted him before police arrived and arrested him. He was said to be very agitated and went on to spit at an officer while in custody the next day.
The defence argued his mental illness meant it was impossible for him to form necessary criminal intent. A doctor said Kettle had aggravated his mental state by abusing alcohol and drugs.