A TEENAGER was armed with a "deadly" weapon when he called his older cousin a "f***ing weak dog" and stabbed him in the stomach out the front of a Hunter home.
Jack Ford, now 21, walked from Newcastle District Court on Thursday after he was sentenced on a reckless wounding charge.
Judge Ian Bourke said Ford had a "close shave" with going to prison but decided he could serve his one-year-and-10-month custodial term in the community.
Ford had pleaded guilty to stabbing his cousin - who had been more like a brother to him - in the stomach during a violent altercation at Huntlee on August 27, 2021.
The court heard the victim, Jesse Sternbeck, had suffered a lacerated kidney and had to undergo three-and-a-half hours of emergency surgery at John Hunter Hospital.
Almost a year later, he was facing a further operation after suffering complications.
Ford had been texting and calling the victim, who had been raised in the same home as him, on the night of the wounding, and had also threatened to "gut" the man's mother.
The victim had downed about 10 vodka Cruisers and Ford had also had plenty to drink when he started texting and calling him about 9.50pm.
What started as verbal threats and yelling escalated to a physical altercation when the victim and six mates went to Ford's place at Huntlee later that night.
The court heard the victim told Ford he was going to "embed your head in the concrete" and was the first to swing a fist.
An altercation broke out and others at the scene tried to separate the men.
The court heard Ford called his cousin a "f***ing weak dog" and the physical fight continued.
At one point, the victim felt like he'd been punched in the ribs.
"When he put his hand up to his shirt he felt that it was wet ... he saw blood," Judge Bourke said during sentencing.
The victim told his friends "I've been f***ing stabbed".
He was driven to Cessnock hospital before he was rushed to hospital in Newcastle.
The court heard a "sharp implement" had been used but due to the nature of the injury - a cut seven centimetres deep - Judge Bourke found the weapon to have been a small knife.
Ford was arrested by police the next day.
Judge Bourke said the victim would have "lifelong scars", but acknowledged there had been a level of provocation.
The court heard details of Ford's troubled upbringing during a sentencing hearing earlier on Thursday.
His defence lawyer told the court he had been making progress in the community while on bail, and handed up a letter from his employer.
Judge Bourke ordered that as part of Ford's community-based sentence, he must engage in anger management counselling and steer clear of drugs and alcohol.
