Doncaster yob who stabbed cyclist given fresh sentence after vehicle theft

Stephen Whittaker, 20, was already serving a two year sentence after pleading guilty to the June 2022 knifing and has now pleaded guilty at Sheffield Crown Court to a charge of aggravated vehicle taking in a separate trial.

The incident occured on January 2, 2021, the court heard.

Whittaker changed his plea to guilty at the hearing on January 17, receiving a custodial sentence of 10 months concurrent to the sentence he is currently serving.

He was also disqualified from driving for 18 months.

Last week, it was revealed how Whittaker, of Chalmers Drive, Clay Lane and a 16-year-old youth, from Knottingley, West Yorkshire, jumped from a passing red car before one of them stabbed a cyclist in the back around Wheatley Hills and Intake.

The judge – Recorder Benjamin Nolan KC – told the defendants: “You could have killed him and had you done so you would have been facing a charge of murder to which you would have been liable to a sentence of life imprisonment. Fortunately, providence was on your side and he did not die.”

Prosecuting barrister Amy Earnshaw said on the evening of June 13, 2022, the cyclist who describes himself as vulnerable with a brain injury and medical conditions, had been heading towards Sandringham Primary School when he was attacked.

The emergency services were alerted and he was taken to Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital, and then transferred to Sheffield’s Royal Hallamshire Hospital. He was treated for a stab wound to his back and a punctured kidney.

Whittaker, who the court was told has a number of previous convictions, and the youth, who also has convictions to his name and cannot be identified for legal reasons, both pleaded guilty to possessing a bladed article and to unlawful wounding. The youth also admitted failing to surrender to custody.

The youth involved in the stabbing incident was sentenced an 18-month detention and training order at the trial at Sheffield Crown Court last week.