Local faces life sentence for naked knife attack during legal high binge

He said ‘he fell on some knives’


This week Exeter Crown Court heard how local man Steven Ritchie, 48, stabbed his neighbour, Colin Johnson, 60, in June last year.

Ritchie denied wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm but was found guilty and now faces a life sentence.

While delirious and high Ritchie told police his neighbour and friend Mr Johnson entered his room paralytic and “fell on some knives, got up and fell on them again.”

The prosecution dismissed his testimony as “absurd nonsense” because it could not explain how Mr Johnson suffered a two inch deep downwards pointing wound just behind his armpit.

Exeter Crown Court heard the surreal story earlier this week

Mr Johnson had joined Ritchie for a drink late at night after seeing the door to his room was open.

Ritchie then attacked Mr Johnson after stripping naked and injecting Posh, a legal high, into his groin.

The two men had been conversing for several hours before Ritchie went to the toilet and returned naked, the syringe still embedded in his groin.

He descended into a rage and trashed the hotel room.

Johnson explained to the police how Ritchie suddenly became angry and “said something like ‘someone is going to die tonight’.”

The jury rejected Ritchie’s claim that Johnson had drunkenly fallen onto a knife he had been using to eat ice cream while sitting naked on the floor.

Former Heroin addict Ritchie had been moved to the supported accommodation after being freed from a three year sentence for stabbing a former partner in the face and abdomen during a Christmas Day attack.

Mr Jonathan Barnes, prosecuting, said the police arrived during the early hours of the morning to Mr Johnson seriously injured on the floor, surrounded by pools of blood in both bedrooms.

He said: “Ritchie appeared to have blood on the back of his arms, he was very agitated and pacing up and down whilst making remarks which were difficult to follow and sounded random to the police.”

“It is perfectly plain this was a deliberate stabbing and you cannot inflict a wound like that without having a significant intent to cause really serious physical damage.”