Lawless vigilante jailed after stabbing paedophile - The Coventry Observer

Lawless vigilante jailed after stabbing paedophile

Coventry Editorial 4th Dec, 2016   0

A ‘LAWLESS VIGILANTE’ who forced his way into the home of a man convicted of child pornography offences and stabbed him in the chest has been jailed for more than nine years.

The stabbing was the last in a series of incidents after Matthew McDonald read of his victim’s conviction, for which he had been given a three-year community order in July last year.

And at Warwick Crown Court he was jailed for eight-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to aggravated burglary at the other man’s home with intent to cause his grievous bodily harm.

McDonald (32) of Westmorland Road, Wyken, Coventry, was given a consecutive 15-month term, taking the total sentence to nine years and nine months, for an earlier offence of affray which he also admitted.




Prosecutor Andrew Wallace said the 50-year-old victim, who also lived in Wyken, had been convicted of child pornography offences, and was sentenced at the court in July last year.

“That is the catalyst for what followed. In an 11-day period there were four incidents in which the defendant saw the complainant and matters occurred.”


On July 20 a lump of wood was thrown at the wheelie bin at the back of the victim’s home, and when he looked outside he saw McDonald, but decided not to report the incident.

Two days later the man was in his kitchen when he saw McDonald coming up the back garden path brandishing a shovel.

He forced his way into the house, shouting and swearing, and asking: “Does your dad know what you’ve done?”

The man, who lives with his 81-year-old father, managed to push McDonald out of the door and called the police, resulting in the affray charge.

Undaunted, on July 30 McDonald approached the victim in the street and hurled abuse at him, calling him a paedophile.

Then the following day the man was again in the kitchen when McDonald forced his way in through the back door.

“He tried to fend him off with his father’s crutch, but the defendant knocked it out of the way and then, from his pocket, took a knife with a blade of up to six inches, a kitchen knife.

“The complainant felt he was fighting for his life as, during the struggle that ensued, the defendant aimed for his heart and stabbed him twice to the left side of his chest,” said Mr Wallace.

Fortunately they resulted in only minor wounds, one below his collarbone and the other to the left side of his chest, before the victim, whose father had tried to go to his aid by throwing plates at the attacker, managed to push McDonald out of the house.

Judge Andrew Lockhart QC, who had earlier described the incident as a ‘vigilante attack,’ commented: “It is more by luck than judgement that this man was not more seriously injured.”

Mr Wallace said that when McDonald was arrested he denied being responsible, putting forward an alibi and suggesting there were ‘a lot of angry parents around.’

Even after he was picked out in an identity procedure, his response was to say: “He’s lying. He’s a paedophile.”

In a third interview he went on to claim that although he had gone there, he had acted in self-defence when he was attacked.

Blondel Thompson, defending, said McDonald, whose previous convictions included an unprovoked assault at a bus stop, had a long history of alcohol and drug abuse.

She said that at the time McDonald was ‘in a bad place,’ and on the day of the first incident he and a friend had been carjacked, which was reported to the police.

But she added that McDonald, whose mother died in January while he was on remand in prison, was now trying to get his life back on track.

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