Knifeman chased target down Telford street
A man who threatened to stab three different people with a knife while walking the streets of two Telford housing estates has been locked up.
Steven Wirizlay brandished a kitchen knife with a six-inch blade as he chased Jordan Hitchin down the road hours after the pair had argued at a park in Brookside, Telford.
After Mr Hitchin got away, 20-year-old Wirizlay went to the house of Ryan Corbett in Woodside, a man who lived two doors down from his mother, and repeatedly stabbed a bin as he made threats against Mr Corbett and his partner.
Shrewsbury Crown Court heard in between the two incidents on June 9, paramedics were called after Wirizlay was found lying "comatosed" in the road outside Mr Corbett's house in Woodside and unable to even say his own name.
He eventually got up and walked away before coming across and threatening Mr Hitchin, and was arrested by police shortly after that.
Wirizlay told police he had no recollection of anything, having drunk a litre bottle of sherry in the afternoon before going out.
Wirizlay, of Warrensway, Woodside, had pleaded guilty to threatening a person with a knife in a public place and two counts of affray at a previous court hearing.
He appeared at Shrewsbury for sentencing, where Judge Jim Tindal sent him to a young offenders institution for 22 weeks.
Mr Robert Edwards, prosecuting, said Mr Hitchin had been known by the defendant for a number of years but they were "certainly not friends".
He told the court Wirizlay became abusive and threatening towards Mr Corbett after he was asked by paramedics who found him unconscious if he knew who he was. The defendant also threatened paramedics, the court was told.
Mrs Debra White, for Wirizlay, said: "He presents really as a rather pathetic figure, a young man who has had a difficult upbringing using illegal substances from the age of 15 and having excessive alcohol intake."
She said he would benefit from the help of professionals and urged the judge to suspend the jail term.
But Judge Tindal said: "Parliament has decided that knives kill people and that therefore there needs to be a clear message sent out.
"If you arm yourself with a knife and threaten someone with it you will go to prison."
