Man almost died in 'pathetic' bike row stabbing

Two men who nearly killed a man in a stabbing following a "pathetic" argument about a stolen bike have been jailed for six years and four months.

Lewis Thompson, 23, and Argenti Jahelezi, 19, attacked their victim in the street and left him bleeding to death in a garden in the Teams area of Gateshead, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

The victim, who suffered four stab wounds, would have died but for life-saving treatment from police and paramedics at the scene, the court heard.

Both men, who were arrested at a hotel in Durham, were charged with attempted murder but admitted intentional wounding. A third attacker fled the country, with a warrant still out for his arrest.

Thompson had been attending a party at a social club when he left to join up with Jahelezi and another man at about 15:30 GMT on 8 March 2025, prosecutor Emma Dowling said.

They knew their victim and there was a confrontation between the man and Thompson in an alleyway in which the victim accused Thompson of stealing a bike, the court heard.

The argument on Derwentwater Road ended with the victim climbing on the back of a motorbike and gesticulating at Thompson as the vehicle circled him, the court heard.

Thompson pulled the man off the bike and began attacking him, with Jahelezi producing a "fearsome-looking" large knife from his clothing and stabbing the victim while the third man also joined in the melee, Ms Dowling said.

The men fled and the victim tried to stagger home, but collapsed in a garden, the court heard.

Police and paramedics were called and provided treatment before the man was rushed to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, the court heard.

"The medical opinion is his life was only saved because of the quick actions at the scene," Ms Dowling said, adding the injuries were certainly "life-threatening".

The man had stab wounds to his back, side, armpit and bottom and had to stay in hospital for five days, the court heard.

The victim had not supported the prosecution and the case against the men was built entirely on piecing together CCTV footage from various cameras, Ms Dowling said.

The attackers fled in a taxi to the Walker area, with police then tracking Thompson and Jahelezi to a hotel in Durham where they were arrested several days later, the court heard.

Jahelezi was an Albanian national who moved to the UK at a young age and would most likely face deportation when his sentence was over, the court heard.

Judge Tim Gittins said it was a case "yet again" of "young males resorting to using knives and group violence, risking lives over pathetic arguments and wasting their own lives by facing long custodial sentences".

He said the armpit wound had penetrated the victim's lung and severed a vein, which had caused his heart to practically stop, leaving the man "close to death".

It was only thanks to paramedics getting there quickly and giving the man a blood and plasma transfusion at the scene which stopped him dying, the judge said.

He said Jahelezli had had an extremely traumatic life which "explains to an extent" the teenager's "over-reaction in spontaneously using such graphic violence", although not why he was carrying such a "fearsome" knife in the first place.

The judge said Thompson did not use the knife but was the one who started the violence, adding he was "not looking for trouble that day" but also "did not walk away from it" and engaged in it voluntarily.

Judge Gittins also praised the police and paramedics for their life-saving actions.

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