A 21-YEAR-old who stabbed another man with a knife after becoming involved with a gang named IV – Insane Violence – has been jailed for five years.

Adam Fry, previously of Mount Road, Bournemouth, was convicted by a jury in August of wounding Michael Gregson with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The incident took place outside Wickes in Ringwood Road on the evening of November 17 last year. Earlier, Fry had been outside his house showing the knife – bought on the internet – and a paintball gun to a female member of the gang.

Fry claimed he had taken the gun back indoors and had not meant to keep the knife in his pocket.

Defence counsel Frank Abbott said the incident had arisen out of “some sort of gang culture” and described his client as a “hanger-on”.

He added that Fry had learning difficulties, had been diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), and had suffered bullying and education problems at school.

He had been taken off the drug Ritalin before the incident, but since going into custody last year was stable and acting as a counsellor to others in prison.

But passing sentence, Mr Recorder Anthony Coleman told Fry: “I am satisfied it was no mistake that you kept the knife on you. I have no doubt that throughout that evening, you were prepared to use it if and when the opportunity presented itself.”

He said Fry and his fellow gang members had “chased down and confronted” Mr Gregson, who was on his own and unarmed. One gang member attacked him with a baseball bat, then Fry used the knife to strike him at least twice and leaving him with a potentially life-threatening abdominal wound.

Mr Coleman told Fry: “Your problems cannot begin to justify the way in which you behaved on the night in question.”