The survivor of a stabbing in a Llandudno nightclub, who says he died twice before doctors saved his life, leading an anti-knife campaign. Jake Pickstock, 25, was brutally slashed twice across his head and throat while enjoying drinks with friends in a North Wales club.
Jake was at Llandudno’s One47 Club when the horrifying incident occurred during the early hours of August 21, 2021. He was out celebrating becoming self-employed when the 19-year-old knifeman approached him before the unprovoked attack.
Now, Jake is launching #OperationPickstock together with Aberconwy MS Janet Finch-Saunders. The anti-knife campaign is backed by the Llandudno Pub Watch scheme, Conwy County Council, and North Wales Police, NorthWalesLive reports.
As part of the campaign, Llandudno pub door staff will be given metal-detecting knife wands by North Wales Police in a bid to catch potential offenders. Posters will also warn young people of the dangers of knives on buses, trains, and taxis, with Llew Jones, Arriva and the council on board.
The posters will be prominent at North Wales railway stations, and Transport for Wales has also agreed for amnesty bins to be placed at stations to help keep knives off the streets. Jake grew up in Penmaenmawr, but now lives in Llandudno where he runs his own business making boat covers.
Jake recounted the harrowing events of the day he was stabbed and explained why he was backing the campaign. "That day was quite a special day," he said.
"I had handed in my resignation to my previous job to go self-employed full-time. My best friend rang me and said: ‘We’ll go out and do something.'
"We went for a meal at Romeo’s in Llandudno, went to Chester to do a bit of bowling, and then we came back to town at about midnight. Another lad we were with said we should go for a quick drink before we went home, so we walked into One47 just after midnight.
“I got a drink at the bar and sat down at a little booth. The music was loud. There was a good atmosphere. My friend went to the toilet after a couple of drinks. Another chap has come over. I don’t really remember too much. That’s where the fear aspect kicked in, the adrenaline."
Jake said he didn't know his attacker, and didn't even learn his name until three days after the attack when it was published in the press.
"I remember lying on the floor, the warm blood," he said. "I remember standing up after (being stabbed). I don’t remember dropping (to the floor). I opened my eyes again, and there were probably 60 people around me in a circle.
“Some people I recognised, some I didn't. I remember one person holding my head, another on my arm trying to reassure me continuously.
"I didn’t have a clue what was going on. I thought I’d been hit. I didn’t realise I’d been stabbed until I woke up in hospital a day later."
Jake said he "pretty much died twice" following the attack, and eventually had 62 stitches.
Luckily, Jake survived the attack, but he said the repercussions were widespread, affecting not just two families but a whole community. “The impact stems from just one person, the victim, to my mum, my dad, my nan before she passed away - she was too scared to go out of the house," he said.
"It was a massive thing in the local area. It’s not just my family. It affects the local community.
"The door staff were traumatised. They had held someone dying in their arms for an hour before the ambulance arrived."
Jake said the incident has changed him and he is now "very vigilant". "I don’t want to go out of the house," he said. "It has taken a lot of counselling to get back to where I am today, to be standing here and talking about it.
“It is not easy. It is never going to be easy. It’s not easy to go out for a drink in town. I’ll go on the odd occasion, but I refrain from it.
"It’s affected the work aspect, trying to deal with lots of things. Trying to run a business with staff working for you was quite difficult. But it is achievable. Working on things, bit by bit, things get better.
"I’ve got a good team around me. My family has been amazing. People I work with have been amazing.”
Ms Finch-Saunders said: "We are standing here with Jake, a very successful businessman, but it could have been so different. I think of the impact on Jake’s life and his family and also the young man himself (the offender) - his life has been ruined by this.
"The message we are trying to get out with Operation Pickstock is no matter how tempting it is to carry a knife, you must not because you are putting yourself in a very dangerous position. 'Lives not knives' is the campaign message.
“It is remarkable Jake is standing here today. He is very brave, having to relive that to tell this story, but he’s doing it to prevent it from happening to someone else.”
She added: “Llandudno is a very safe place. This was a very frightening and horrific incident, a very rare incident, but nevertheless what Jake wants to do now is build on the bad to turn it into good to make sure no other young person thinks it’s great to carry a knife, because the impact on their family as well as the victim’s family is huge."
