Stabber avoids prison
A HERVEY Bay man who stabbed a good Samaritan grandfather with a hunting knife has escaped jail.
Michael Raymond Pagett was allowed to walk from the Hervey Bay District Court yesterday after he was convicted of stabbing Paul Tubb at Urangan on January 29.
The knife attack, which occurred in front of young children, was the culmination of a longstanding dispute between Pagett, 45, and his next-door neighbour Chris Hansen.
Mr Hansen often had large groups of children at his home who, according to Pagett, would throw rocks at his house and on to his roof.
On the day of the stabbing, Pagett used a rock to smash his neighbour's kitchen window out of retaliation, which led to a confrontation between the men outside their Boat Harbour Dr homes.
Mr Tubb was picking up his grandchildren from a friend's house when he saw Pagett swinging a knife at Mr Hansen and intervened.
Pagett stabbed Mr Tubb in the stomach, leaving a 2cm gash that required stitches.
Judge Hugh Botting said in court that while the stomach injury was now fully healed, society would not tolerate knife attacks of any kind.
"The use of knives by people who get into disputes is something which I think is deplored by our community," he said.
Pagett, who spent 10 days in custody earlier this year, was sentenced to 18 months' jail with immediate parole.
He also received one month each for swinging the knife at Mr Hansen and damaging the window.
Pagett's parole meant he was free to leave the court and return to the same address in Boat Harbour Dr, a home he shares with his elderly mother.
It is understood Mr Hansen no longer lives next door.
