Jury fails to reach verdict in attempted murder case

A jury has been sent home for the weekend in the case of a man accused of stabbing his girlfriend's former partner 11 times during a knife attack at his Lincoln home.

Craig Smith, 27, denied he was the intruder who knifed Mr Dawidowski, 53, at his bungalow in Saxon Street, off Rasen Lane, – insisting he was at his mother's home at the time of the stabbing.

A jury at Lincoln Crown Court failed to reach a verdict in the case on Friday and will continues its deliberations on Monday.

The jury had heard Mr Dawidowski needed eight hours of emergency surgery and a gallon of blood after he was found collapsed in his hallway shortly before 6am.

He had suffered stab wounds to his face, neck, side and back and was kept in hospital for nearly two months after the attack.

At the time of the incident Smith was in a relationship with Mr Dawidowski's former partner Katy Stainton.

Mr Dawidowski had lived with her at the bungalow for two years until she moved out in November 2008.

The jury were told Miss Stainton had a "fierce argument" with Smith the night before the stabbing and it may have been that she was playing the two men off against each other.

Mr Dawidowski told a paramedic he did not know his attacker's name and informed police on more than one occasion that he could not remember who attacked him.

But giving evidence by video-link during the trial Mr Dawidowski insisted he "sure" it was Smith who carried out the knife attack at his bungalow on March 4.

Craig Smith, 27, of Scorer Street, Lincoln, denies attempting to murder Anthony Dawidowski on March 4 and an alternative charge of section 18 wounding.