Stabbed licensee lucky to be alive

A licensee who was stabbed by a heroin addict after he asked him go outside to smoke has admitted he is lucky to be alive.

David Shanks, licensee of the Red Lion in Stanley Road, Teddington, Middlesex, was knifed twice with a 7in blade in his pub on August 21 last year.

His attacker, Ben Langmead, 27, of Princes Road, Teddington, was jailed indefinitely on May 21 at Kingston Crown Court.

Shanks told thepublican.com: "I was lucky. It penetrated me in two places but missed everything.

"If it had been somewhere else it could have been fatal."

The court was told the licensee had a pair of 2cm-wide stab wounds in his back and the knife only missed vital organs because it hit his ribs.

Before going to the pub, Langmead had stolen two cans of beer from a Londis shop.

He came into the pub and asked for a light for a cigarette and was told by Shanks he had to smoke in the beer garden.

A few minutes later Langmead returned and stabbed the licensee twice in the back, the court heard.

However Shanks has refused to blame the smoking ban for the attack. "When he asked for a light he had no idea I was the landlord. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said. "It was an accident waiting to happen and I was the pin cushion."

Langmead's defence said the crimes - theft and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm - were committed out of a "desperation for heroin".

He attacked the licensee because he had shown a lack of respect in the way he forced him to smoke outside, it was claimed.

The judge ruled that Langmead was a danger and jailed him for an indeterminate term, ordering him to serve at least two years.