Man stabbed ex-workmate in a rage after five-year-long feud over a sausage roll

A knifeman who stabbed an ex-colleague after they became embroiled in a long-term feud over a sausage roll has been jailed for more than four years.

Matthew Evans, 36, turned up on a doorstep asking: "Remember me, you c**t?" five years after first becoming convinced that the victim had eaten a pastry that belonged to him, according to Mirror.

Evans then stabbed the man in the abdomen and slashed his face with a blade before running away from the property in Hemel Hempstead on January 5.

Luton Crown Court heard how the bad blood dated back to 2016 when the knifeman accused the victim, who he then worked with, of stealing his snack.

And the knife attack wasn't the first time he had sought violent revenge for the perceived slight, reports HertsLive.

The feud was first reignited at the end of 2020 when the pair unexpectedly bumped into each other for the first time in years.

Prosecutor James Onalaja told the court how Evans mentioned the sausage roll in conversation, sparking a fight in which he later picked up a hammer.

Evans swung the hammer around his head and accidentally hit his own girlfriend, Mr Onalaja said.

The victim then grabbed the hammer off Evans and hit him on the head in self-defence before fleeing.

He sustained a bruise to his stomach and ribs during the incident, but it was never reported to the police.

A few weeks later the victim was at a friend's house in Hemel Hempstead when he heard someone marching through the door.

He was greeted by Evans who, in a rage, hit him in the face and chest before knifing him.

Mr Onalaja described what occurred next as "bizarre antics". Evans, covered in blood, began knocking on strangers doors asking to be given a lift away from the area.

After being turned away by the first house, he barged his way into the second home and told the female occupant he had just stabbed someone down the road.

Evans demanded a change of clothes and a cab before leaving the terrified woman's house.

The victim was taken to hospital with a wound to the right side of his chest and a laceration near his right eye.

In mitigation, defence counsel Scott Brady said Evans went to the house as a long-term friend lived there, and he had not known the victim would be there.

Mr Brady said Evans had been carrying the knife for his own defence as a result of the altercation a few weeks prior.

The judge, Mr Recorder George Rolland Keightley, laid some blame for the attack on Evans' psychological issues.

He said: "The medical report reveals a young man with ADHD who fought for his country, resulting in post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Unfortunately, rather than seek help you went down another path, a path of substance abuse."

Evans pleaded guilty to wounding with intent and possession of an offensive weapon in public.

He was sentenced on Thursday to four years and 10 months imprisonment.