A TEENAGER nearly killed a man after stabbing him outside a Tesco and laughed as he kicked him in the face and head on the floor.

Daniel Drew, aged 19, formerly of Newport, was locked up after knifing 22-year-old Jake Thomas in his belly after a stand-off in Pontypool.

The defendant had marched into the supermarket, stolen a large kitchen knife and thrust it into his victim at the store’s car park in front of horrified witnesses.

Surgeons at Newport’s Royal Gwent Hospital saved Mr Thomas’s life after he suffered a four-inch wide wound to his stomach that was an inch deep.

Prosecutor Heath Edwards said the violence was triggered after the defendant had kicked and dented the car of a woman called Cameron Carter hours earlier outside the Iron Duke pub in Pontypool town centre.

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Drew then racially abused workers at the Peri Cottage takeaway he was banned from, throwing a rubbish bin at staff and branding them “terrorists”.

He also made threats and kicked a glass panel which shattered.

The victim and others had gone to Tesco to confront the defendant after hearing he had caused £300 of damage to Miss Carter’s Fiat Punto.

Cardiff Crown Court heard Drew unleashed the violence on the evening of Saturday, April 6.

Mr Edwards said: “The defendant went into the Tesco Superstore. He picked up a large kitchen knife priced £12.99 and walked out without paying for it.

“Armed with the weapon, he came out and confronted Jake Thomas, waving the knife around.

“He then stabbed the complainant in the stomach and Mr Thomas collapsed to the floor.”

The court heard how Drew kicked his victim in the head and face while laughing in a vicious assault witnessed by around 15 people.

Mr Edwards said he taunted his prone victim, demanding of him: “What happened to you butt? Got stabbed did you?”

The complainant underwent surgery and remained in the Royal Gwent Hospital for eight days after suffering “life-threatening injuries”.

Drew, now of Newgate Street, Brecon, admitted wounding with intent, possession of a knife, theft of a knife, racially aggravated public disorder and criminal damage.

He committed the offences whilst out on licence after serving a custodial sentence for burglary and has previous convictions for common assault and aggravated vehicle taking.

Nigel Fryer, for Drew, said the best mitigation he could put forward was his client’s guilty pleas and his young age.

He added that the escalation of violence and the use of a knife were a sad reflection of modern times.

Mr Fryer told the court: “Jake Thomas came looking for him and he has acted on impulse. He has armed himself with a knife on the assumption that others would be.

“It has become a dangerous arms race. It is the causal nature with which young people tend to arm themselves and introduce themselves into knife crime.”

In sentencing him, Judge Michael Fitton QC told Drew: “You came close to causing the death of another young man.

“You waved the knife around and stabbed him in the belly, causing him life-threatening injuries.

“You laughed at him and kicked him in the face.”

Drew was sentenced to nine years in custody.