A “God fearing” nightclub bouncer who ran a Bible study group in his spare time has been jailed for three years – after he stabbed a drunk reveller.
Mark Brown, 39, knifed Neville Cunningham, 37, in the chest in the “heat of the moment” after refusing him admission to the club because he believed he was carrying a blade.
Dad-of-two Brown, who ran a Bible study group, admitted wounding and possessing a knife as an offensive weapon when he appeared at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Monday.
Jailing him for three years, Judge John Maxwell told him: “It is obvious that you refused him admission but what is not obvious is whether the complainant was carrying a knife and whether you disarmed him.
“I am going to sentence you on the assumption that that version is correct.
“But you then produced the knife, which you say you had taken off the complainant, and it is clear that you first threatened him with the knife and then stabbed him to the chest.
“Happily he was stitched up and there is no indication that the stabbing penetrated deep.
“You have been brought up to be God fearing and moral.”
The court heard Brown, of Bilston, West Mids., was working as a doorman at the Greyhound pub and club in Wolverhampton when he launched at Mr Cunningham at 4.30am on December 5, 2010.
Mark Rees, prosecuting, said Mr Cunningham had felt two or three punches to his stomach but had only one wound – a 5cm long slash about 10cm below his left nipple, which needed stitches.
Kate Thomas, defending, told the court the victim had brought the knife to the club and attacked Brown when he disarmed him in the foyer of the club.
Miss Thomas added that Brown had always been a “very good role model” to his six step children, two children of his own and a foster child that he and his wife had adopted.
She said Brown and his wife had set up their own Bible study group at the Newhampton Arts Centre in Wolverhampton and he was not a man who “runs around being violent”.
