GRIEVING relatives and friends of murderer Mark Hobson's victims today blasted officials for backing a judge's controversial decision not to jail him in 2002 when he stabbed a man.

Critics of Judge Scott Wolstenholme rounded on a leading judiciary body after it released a statement defending the sentence he handed down to Hobson two years before he pleaded guilty to four murders.

Judge Wolstenholme, sitting at Leeds Crown Court in June 2002, gave Hobson a 100-hour community punishment order and a two-year community rehabilitation order.

When quadruple killer Hobson, 35, was on the run last July, critics said the victims might still have been alive if Hobson had been jailed for his knife attack on William Brace back in 2002.

Mr Brace, 34, was stabbed five times in broad daylight in front of horrified shoppers, in Gowthorpe, Selby.

He ended up in intensive care and doctors said he was lucky to be alive, according to his mother Margaret.

Judge Wolstenholme has declined to comment on the issue, but the newly-created Judicial Communications Office (JCO), which represents judges, defended his decision.

Philip Harrison - whose son, Ian, was courting Diane Sanderson, one of Hobson's victims - said they had "discussed as a family" the judge's decision in 2002 and thought it disgusting.

Speaking at his home, in Park Grove, Brayton, Philip Harrison said: "Some judges seem to be on a different planet to the rest of us.

"There are too many do-gooders about today, but whatever you say, it won't change anything."

Catherine Wilkins, pictured right, whose parents Jim and Joan Britton were murdered at their home in Strensall, said the judge had handed down an "excessively lenient" sentence in the Brace case.

Speaking at her Durham home, she said: "All I can say is that I don't agree with the backing of this judge.

"They are obviously going to support his decision. They have to defend themselves but I don't think it was the right decision.

"These things only open up a can of worms. Someone almost lost their life and you can defend yourself without using a knife. Stabbing someone five times seems a strange defence.

"If Hobson had been locked up in 2002 it would have made a big difference because what happened subsequently may not have happened.

"Maybe people will remember this case and it may have a bearing on a future decision. If people can learn something from it, maybe it will help."

A spokesman for the JCO said: "This criticism had not been based on the full evidence of the case and the circumstances on which the judge passed his sentence.

"The offence was unlawful wounding, but reporting has not acknowledged that the wounding was inflicted in the course of excessive self-defence."

Updated: 09:36 Monday, May 02, 2005