A HOMELESS man has been jailed for slashing another man with a glass shard and giving him a 15cm wound.

The victim was trying to stop Robert Ian Keeble, 41, from climbing into his Tadcaster flat through the window at 11pm, York Crown Court heard.

Before starting to get inside, Keeble had shouted to the victim: “If I get in, I will kill you,” said Michael Bosomworth, prosecuting.

The victim tried to push him backwards.

“Keeble started punching him repeatedly to the face,” said Mr Bosomworth.

“Matters escalated when Keeble picked up a shard of glass of some length, was brandishing it and then slashed it across the chest … causing a wound.”

The victim had a 15cm wound which, said Mr Bosomworth, photos showed “appeared to be gaping”. He also had cuts to his thumb and feet.

He was so frightened by the incident he told police “I feel safer if I leave the area,” the prosecution barrister said.

Keeble, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to wounding and was jailed for 16 months.

It was the second time he was given a 16-month jail term during the pandemic.

In August 2020, he was imprisoned by the Royal Court in Jersey after admitting illegal entry of a hotel and theft of wine worth more than £500.

His barrister Victoria Smith-Swain said he had gone to the Channel island for “a holiday”.

At the time of the Tadcaster incident on April 26, 2019, he had been drinking, was homeless, and his life was up in the air, she said.

Keeble had received “natural justice” for his actions as he was still waiting surgery for a tendon he had damaged during the incident.