A DRUG-CRAZED knifeman who slit the throat of another man in a row about a £55 coat laughed at police when questioned over the near-fatal attack.

Peter Smyth appeared boastful about what he had done to Gary Instone, and was said to have shown no remorse.

Yesterday, he joked with friends and family in the public gallery at Teesside Crown Court where he was jailed for three years.

The judge, Recorder Peter Johnson, told the 23-year-old, from Chester-le-Street, that the victim was “perilously close to losing his life”.

He added: “Whether or not you would have been facing a much more serious charge was no thanks to you because in that massively intoxicated state you put that blade across his neck.”

The court heard the argument was initially between Mr Instone and single mum Shantell Hutchinson, 20, a friend of his partner’s, who had borrowed his jacket.

Hutchinson took the garment when she left a party at Mr Instone’s house in Thornaby, near Stockton, to go to buy cigarettes on March 13.

Having heard her brother had been stabbed in an unrelated incident, Hutchinson went to her home, changed clothes, grabbed a kitchen knife and went looking for the attackers, later telling police she wanted to kill them.

Mr Instone, 21, called her mobile phone when she had not returned, and the pair argued about the coat before Smyth grabbed the handset and threatened Mr Instone.

Smyth and Hutchinson then turned up at the house, and while she went inside to speak to Mr Instone, Smyth waited outside and had a cannabis joint.

Jolyon Perks, prosecuting, told the court that Mr Instone ejected Hutchinson, and locked the door, but Smyth kicked his way in and attacked him. He punched him several times to the head before holding the knife to his throat and running it from one side to the other, spilling blood all over the house.

A laughing Smyth walked into a police station three weeks later, telling officers he had “opened up” Mr Instone.

He was asked what was funny and replied: “Everything.”

Nigel Soppitt, mitigating, said Smyth’s actions were “an isolated bout of madness”.

Denis Chisman, for Hutchinson, said she had “made a catastrophic error of judgement”.

Smyth, of Sandford, Pelton, admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and affray.

Hutchinson, of Grenville Road, Thornaby, who admitted having an offensive weapon and affray, was given a four-month suspended prison sentence with supervision.