York stabbing victim jailed for shop thefts and assaults

Adam Thackway, 38, threatened to kick in a shop employee’s head as he stole items from five different shops and assaulted a police officer after he was arrested.

He also defied a court order forbidding him to have any contact with one of the two people charged and acquitted of causing him grievous bodily harm with intent on October 5 last year.

He has now received jail terms totalling 23 weeks since his release from hospital.

Thackway, who gave his address as Flaxman Avenue, Tang Hall, pleaded guilty to seven charges of shop theft and one of assaulting a police officer.

Shortly before midnight on October 5, he was rushed to hospital with serious abdominal wounds after what police at the time described as a “disturbance” in a house off Huntington Road, York.

Police in Huntington Road the day after the stabbing (Image: Newsquest)

Defence solicitor Shawn Cooper told York magistrates: “He was in hospital for 10 weeks and very nearly lost his life. This affected his mental health.

“He has then turned to alcohol and to drugs in a way of being able to cope with it. This has been the main factor leading to his offending.

“He was homeless and with very limited money.”

Thackway was jailed for seven weeks for the theft and assaulting the police officer.

On May 27, he was jailed at the same court for 16 weeks for breaching a restraining order preventing him contacting the woman acquitted over the stabbing and assaulting her and another shop theft committed on January 26.

He has more than 100 previous convictions for theft, assault and drug dealing and in 2015 was jailed for more than eight years for a machete attack.

Alison Whiteley, prosecuting, said Thackway stole items worth £37.26 from Sainsbury’s on Scarcroft Road on February 28.

When a member of staff saw he had so many items inside his jacket it was “bulging”, they offered him a basket.  

Thackway responded: “You just think I’m stealing” and something fell out of his jacket.

“He was threatening, saying he would kick his (the shop employee’s) head in,” said Ms Whiteley. 

On February 11, the CPS dropped the case against the man and woman charged over the stabbing and on March 3, Thackway assaulted the woman.

He was initially given a community order for the assault and January theft on April 24.

On April 29 he stole vodka worth £20 from Marks and Spencer and assaulted the police officer while in custody at Fulford Road Police Station.

On May 1, he stole vodka worth £18.50 from Morrisons on Foss Islands Road, York, on May 3, alcohol and groceries worth £37.73 from a Co-op store in Foxwood,  and on May 13 stole alcohol worth £25.50, £10.75 and £8.50 from the BP garage on Lawrence Road on separate occasions.

On May 23, he was spotted with the woman in the street and was arrested and held in custody. 

On May 27, the community order was revoked and he received the 16-week prison sentence.