Sentenced to seven years in prison for attack with a weapon in the street

A violent criminal who attacked a man who had been lured to a street in the Isle of Man capital has been jailed for seven years.

Donovan Kitching, 40, pointed an “unidentified weapon” at the victim’s head in August last year, resulting in him needing stitches to his hand and ear.

Douglas Courthouse heard that Michael Glover, who was jailed for three years in August, so he thought it was a drug deal.

Donovan has a number of previous convictions, including causing the death of a woman by dangerous driving in 2014, for which he was given a 10 year prison sentence,

The court heard Glover had said that while the pair had planned to give the other man a few “slaps”, he did not know Kitching would bring a gun to the attack on August 19 last year.

The court was told Kitching had a history of violent offending and had breached a suspended sentence supervision order, made in May last year for resisting police and two counts of assaulting police, when the latest attack took place.

He was found guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm following a trial in May.

In a victim impact statement previously read to the court, the man said he had not been able to work since the attack and had had family problems.

Kitching, who represented himself at the hearing, was removed from court after interrupting the proceedings on several occasions.

Sentencing, Deemster Graeme Cook said that although it “could not be proven” what the weapon was, he considered it “highly dangerous”.