PRISON does not loom for a 30-year-old Cheltenham man who helped Rebecca Nangle get rid of the knife she used in a New Year's Eve stabbing.
Kevin Martin, of Columbia Street, Pittville, pleaded guilty at Gloucester Crown Court to assisting an offender by taking possession of a knife which had been used in a criminal offence.
Nangle was jailed for six years last month for wounding Vicky Griffiths with intent to cause her grievous bodily harm. Ms Griffiths suffered a punctured lung in the attack.
Moments before the stabbing, Nangle had taken the knife from her aunt, Leigh Eyre, who was holding it outside her home in Priors Road after a row with neighbour Ms Griffiths.
Prosecutor Julian Kesner said the case against Martin was that, after the stabbing, Nangle asked him to get rid of the knife.
He walked into a nearby garden, found the knife, but then returned to Nangle and gave it back to her. After that, it disappeared and had never been found.
Defence solicitor William Woodman said: "He admitted he had been very, very stupid."
Bailing Martin for a pre-sentence report, Judge Jamie Tabor QC told him: "I am not going to send you to prison for this because your involvement was very short and probably ill-thought-out."