A RETIRED hotelier has been jailed for six years for stabbing a friend whom he said had taunted him for years about having sex with his wife.

The 62-year-old of Inner Loop, Beachley, wept in the dock at Gloucester Crown Court after Recorder Peter Towler jailed him for unlawfully wounding Anthony Friendship with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm.

The defendant's wife Rose, who was sitting at the back of the court, also broke down and had to be helped outside.

The court heard how Jenkins had confronted his victim in the gents at the Rising Sun pub in Woodcroft, near Chepstow on the night of March 11, last year and stabbed him twice with a lock-knife.

He first stabbed Mr Friendship in the back and then plunged the knife three inches deep into the victim's abdomen rupturing his spleen.

Prosecuting barrister Julian Kesner said: "Pre-meditation and the use of a weapon are aggravating features in this case.

"It was more luck than judgement that this was not a murder case."

Defending barrister Huw Wallace said: "The level of teasing over more than a year must have been pretty horrific as my client, being in the hotel business, would have been used to banter.

"He is in very poor health – and the medication he takes has side-effects, including heightened aggression, nervousness, panic attacks and confusion.

"He is of impeccable character and has no previous convictions or court appearances whatsoever."

But Recorder Towler told Jenkins: "At the end of the day this is a double stabbing with a knife in a public place."