A JUDGE has vowed that the courts will do everything possible to try to stamp out knife crime.

Judge Niclas Parry, sitting at Mold Crown Court, told one Aberystwyth man that he was fortunate not to be facing a murder charge.

Miroslaw Orzechowski, 28, admitted two charges of wounding and was jailed for 27 months.

Co-defendant Tomasz Kuras, 33, admitted affray and he was jailed for 10 months.

The two men, then living at Treowen in Newtown but now of Llanfarian near Aberystwyth, had originally been charged with wounding with intent, following an incident in January of last year, but were cleared when the prosecution offered no evidence against them.

Judge Parry said that both had admitted their parts in a serious incident of violence involving weapons.

Orzechowski, he said, should be in no doubt that “you could be standing here to be sentenced for murder”.

He added: “Utterly out of control of your senses because of the enormous amount of alcohol you had consumed, you became involved in a violent argument.”

Both had resorted to picking up weapons and Orzechowski had used one, the judge said.

Orzechowski used a bladed weapon to strike one victim to the head, but it could have landed anywhere. Mercifully, he caused a gash and nothing worse, the court heard.

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