Shock as blade-wielding house burglar slashes Corby knife campaigner

The founder of a Corby anti-knife crime group has spoken of his shock when a house burglar he had disturbed revealed a knife and slashed at him.

Jack Richman, 28, who runs East Midlands Knife Amnesty CIC, had settled down for the night when he thought he heard the door being opened by his partner back from work at 10.30pm yesterday (June 27).

His dog started barking but did not stop and as it was was too early for her shift to have finished, he went down to investigate noises coming from the back of his house in Fotheringhay Road.

The dad-of-two said: “I thought it was my girlfriend coming home but I looked at the clock and it was too early.

"I went downstairs and could see a man with his hand on the back door. I think I spooked him as I came down the stairs. The door was ajar. I went outside. He didn’t say a single word. He swung at me – I must have jumped back three to four feet. He had a chef’s knife about 12cm long. He slashed across my body, caught my top and grazed me."

The assailant climbed over the fence to escape. Mr Richman called 999.

He said: "I was a little bit shocked, I’m used to dealing with these sorts of incidents, but it was just luck I got out of the way.

"It’s a ‘what if’ moment. What if I had been stabbed and my children were upstairs and I had bled out? He could have caught me with the knife another way.”

A spokesman for Northamptonshire Police said: “This happened in Fotheringhay Road, Corby, at abut 10.30pm last night when the offender entered a back garden in the area, was challenged by the occupant, and produced a knife, making a slashing motion towards the occupant before leaving.”

Mr Richman has described the attacker as 5ft 10ins tall, wearing grey tracksuit, with his hood up, a grey baseball cap and white trainers.

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101.

East Midlands Knife Amnesty CIC, established in 2019, group campaigns across Corby and fundraises for The Daniel Baird Foundation Bleed Control Kits to be placed within the town in hotspot areas.