A York man stabbed an American tourist outside a hotel in the city in what appeared to be a completely random attack, a court heard.
Matthew McPherson, 25, allegedly crept up behind Larry Welshans and stabbed him with a kitchen knife, a jury was told.
Prosecutor Philip Standfast opened the case for the prosecution yesterday (Wednesday, 1 April) in a ‘finding of fact’ hearing in the absence of the defendant.
In such proceedings, rather than finding the defendant guilty or not guilty, the jury is tasked with determining whether he did the acts alleged, namely wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and two counts of carrying a knife.
Mr Standfast said it was the Crown’s case that Mr McPherson, from Dunnington, was wielding two knives at the time of the attack.
He said that Mr Welshans and his wife were staying at The Moxy hotel in Black Horse Lane, Peasholme Green, at the time of the attack in October last year.
Mr Welshans, who was in his 70s, woke early at about 5am on 9 October and went outside for a cigarette while his wife got ready for their departure to London.
Having forgotten the key to get back inside the hotel, he remained sitting at a picnic table and was playing games on his phone, waiting for his wife to let him back in, when two ambulancemen approached him and asked him if he’d seen a “bloke” they were looking for.
Mr Welshans said he hadn’t seen any such “bloke”.
Curiously, Mr Standfast said the search for this individual was not necessarily linked to the attack which was about to befall the unsuspecting American tourist.
He said it was at this point, as the ambulancemen were heading back towards the hotel, that Mr Welshans felt somebody grab him from behind.
He then felt “what he thought was a fist” to his stomach as if he had been punched.
Mr Standfast alleged that it was Mr McPherson who delivered that blow, which turned out to be a stab with a knife.
‘Agitated and hyped up’
The attacker, who the prosecution say was Mr McPherson, said “sorry” then ran up the street towards the ambulancemen and said: “Help, he’s been stabbed.”
The ambulancemen turned back towards the stricken tourist who was bleeding. He was taken to hospital and gave a description of the man who had attacked him.
Mr Welshans, who was in a “great deal of pain”, was treated at Leeds General Infirmary and mercifully survived the attack.
One of the ambulancemen said he had seen a man leave his bicycle at a bike rack next to the hotel, then saw that man running past shouting “something like ‘he’s stabbed himself, help, help, ambulance’”.
He said the man had a knife in his hand which he threw into the road. He described the man as being “agitated and hyped up”.
He said that Mr Welshans had an injury to his torso and stomach and a cut to his right leg, so he put a dressing on the wound to stem the bleeding. He later gave police a description of the attacker.
A police officer saw a man matching that description walking along Barbican Road later that morning and followed Mr McPherson in his vehicle.
The officer got out of his vehicle and approached Mr McPherson who said that “he was the person they were looking for, and he was going to Fulford Road Police Station”.
As he was arrested, Mr McPherson asked “if the guy was OK”.
During a search, police found two black-handled kitchen knives on Mr McPherson.
A subsequent forensic examination of the knives showed a DNA match to the “flesh and blood” of Mr Welshans, which the prosecution said was clear evidence that he had been stabbed with one of those blades.
Mr Standfast said that during police questioning, Mr McPherson, of Sawyers Walk, “wasn’t denying what he had done”, but claimed that because of his (mental) disabilities”, he “wasn’t conscious of what he had done”.
Mr Welshans was due to give evidence via video link from the United States yesterday afternoon.
The hearing continues.
