A MAN who stabbed a 50-year-old former bouncer outside a town centre nightspot has been jailed for four years.

Lee Turner, of Wiltshire Close, Rodbourne, plunged a knife into the side of his victim during a violent fracas outside The Crown in Devizes.

After finding the 26-year-old posed a significant risk of serious harm and has a criminal record dating back to when he was 11, Judge Douglas Field jailed him.

Sitting at Dorchester Crown Court he gave him four years for unlawful wounding with nine months concurrent for possessing a bladed article.

Turne was convicted following a trial at Swindon Crown Court.

Despite being warned he would face sentence, he failed to attend the hearing last month and had to be brought in custody.

The judge said he found him a dangerous offender, but would not impose an extended sentence.

Victim Tony Walker was on his way home in the early hours of October 6 last year when he stopped to speak to former colleagues on the door of the pub. Turner was on the street having been thrown out as other drinkers thought he was being aggressive towards his girlfriend.

Footage from the CCTV at the pub showed him threatening bouncers and ripping off his T shirt. He pushed his girlfriend to the ground, he claims accidentally, before turning to shout abuse to the bouncers.

Seeing that, father-of-three Mr Walker said he feared an attack and stepped forward throwing a heavy punch. The builder then followed Turner and threw another blow before the pair grappled on the other side of New Park Street, ending up together on the ground.

Door staff pulled them apart and after getting Mr Walker back to the pub found blood pouring from his side and arm.

When the police arrived a camouflage folding knife was found tucked behind a plastic gas inspection box outside a nearby house.

Turner, who was out cold for a while and had a double break to his jaw which needed pinning, was arrested and denied any wrongdoing saying he had been the victim.

He denied the weapon was his, suggesting it may have been Mr Walker’s, though he accepted he had acted “like an idiot” after being thrown out the pub.

The juryfound him guilty of unlawful wounding and possessing the knife. He was cleared of wounding with intent to cause GBH.

Turner was only 12 when he was first convicted of robbery – said to have involved a knife – in December 2000; in August 2002 he was convicted of possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and put on an 18-month detention and training order. Two months later he got four years for assault with intent to rob involving an imitation firearm.

In November 2005, at 17, he was jailed for four years, with a four-year extended licence, for three robberies and assault with intent to rob.

He was returned to serve some of the licence after offending in 2010 and in 2011 went on the run while on day release from Erlestoke prison.