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Darren Neville |
Knife attack left landlord ‘millimetres from death’
A PUB landlord stabbed 14 times and left with two punctured lungs in a bungled robbery has said he was “millimetres from death”.
Roger Lashley, 33, was left fighting for his life after being repeatedly stabbed with a 15cm blade at the Slaughtered Lamb pub in Great Sutton Street, Clerkenwell, in May 2007.
Darren Neville, 23, of Central Street, Finsbury, was jailed for eight years and nine months for the attack, at Wood Green Crown Court last Tuesday.
Speaking of his ordeal, Mr Lashley said: “I think about it every day, replaying it over and over in my head to see if I would have done anything differently. I suffer from anxiety attacks and am scared to leave the flat. I can’t even take the dog for a walk.”
Mr Lashley was counting the day’s takings in his downstairs office at 1am on May 2 when he saw on his CCTV monitor a man jump up from behind the upstairs bar.
“At first I thought he was just a friend of the barmaid mucking around, but then I watched her on the CCTV run downstairs. I heard her screaming: ‘He’s got a knife, he’s got a knife’.
“When I saw the man, I remember thinking he was off his head – he was jaundiced and feral looking but I thought I could reason with him. He had a knife in his hand and said he would stab me if I didn’t give him the money.
“I assured him I would hand over the money, but the knife was raised above his head as if he was about to strike me. I saw an opportunity to wrestle it off him.
“I grabbed his wrist and we grappled in the corridor before I slipped. He shouted at me to back off and started to stab me.
“I didn’t realise I had been stabbed because of the adrenalin but there was blood all over the floor.”
Mr Lashley, who suffered wounds to his arm, shoulder and head, managed to pursue his attacker upstairs before collapsing on the pub floor.
He was taken to hospital, where he spent four hours in surgery having his lungs artificially inflated.
Mr Lashley, a keen athlete before the attack, fears his injuries may stop him playing football and tennis again.
He had been landlord of the quiet pub for more than two years but has not been back since the attack.
Neville pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted robbery and one count of grievous bodily harm. |
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