A criminal who claimed to be defending himself when he stabbed a man a dozen times in Hitchin yesterday lost an appeal against his jail term.

The Comet: Police at the scene of the stabbing, where Fishponds Road meets Bunyan Road in Hitchin.Police at the scene of the stabbing, where Fishponds Road meets Bunyan Road in Hitchin. (Image: Archant)

Richard Campbell, who is now 34, left his victim – who was known to him – lying in a pool of blood after setting upon him with a knife at the junction of Bunyan Road and Fishponds Road in 2016.

Last May he was convicted of GBH and jailed for 10 years, with a five-year extended licence – a sentence he appealed.

But three top judges have upheld the sentence at London’s Court of Appeal.

Campbell, of Downderry Road in Bromley, attacked his victim in retribution after an argument at the Venue nightspot in Bancroft.

Campbell ran away and dumped the knife in a bin. The other man, in his late 30s, suffered life-changing injuries in what police called a “horrific attack”.

Lord Justice Flaux, sitting with Mrs Justice Nicola Davies and Judge Neil Bidder QC, dismissed Campbell’s appeal.