A blind man stabbed repeatedly and left for dead in his Upper Holloway home believes justice has been done after his attacker – who he had known for decades – was jailed for 20 years.
Archway man Terry Jobber, 43, was sentenced at the Old Bailey this morning for the brutal assault and robbery on January 26.
He had gone round to Daren Harrison’s Alexander Road home after calling to say he wanted to buy some tobacco from him.
The pair had known each other for 25 years, but as soon as Daren turned his back Jobber hit him over the head with a truncheon before grabbing a knife from the kitchen drawer and stabbing him repeatedly in the back.
After collapsing on his bedroom floor Daren – by now unable to move – was then stabbed in the throat. The blows only stopped when he played dead, at which point Jobber left with his life savings. In total he was stabbed eight times.
Speaking to the Gazette after Jobber was locked up, Daren, 51, said: “The sentence was a bit longer than I expected. But that’s justice, ain’t it?”
Daren is now able to walk again with the help of a stick, having been left paralysed for months. After initially being taken to St Mary’s Hospital, he spent time in the Whittington and then the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. He still cannot feel hot or cold sensations on the left side of his body.
Recalling the attack, he added: “I remember everything. When he hit me with the truncheon I didn’t go down.
“I went into the garden and started shouting for help and he started saying sorry and that it was a misunderstanding, so I went back inside. He said he was on the phone to the ambulance but then started stabbing me in the back with a knife out of the drawer.
“I collapsed in the bedroom and couldn’t move. I was paralysed. Every time I shouted out for help he’d stab me again. Then he stabbed me through the jugular and that’s when I thought: ‘You’ve got to act dead now boy’.
“I could hear him rummaging around in the house and then I heard him coming back up and thought: ‘Not another one.’
“But he looked in the room and saw me and must have thought I was dead, and then left.”
Daren was only saved thanks to his neighbour coming home early and calling for an ambulance. On returning home, he said: “It was weird at first and I had a couple of breakdowns. But he ain’t going to kick me out of my house.”
Daren also thanked his friends and family, who helped raise more than £2,000 to help him in his recovery with a fundraiser at his local boozer, The Corner Flag in Hornsey Road.
“They’ve been absolutely brilliant,” he said. “I’ve had hundred of messages of support.”
Jobber was sentenced to 20 years for wounding with intent. He also received nine years and six months for robbery, four months for possession of an imitation firearm and seven days for possession of class A drugs. All will run concurrently.
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