Homeless man slashed car passenger in Copdock Tesco car park

A homeless man who slashed a man’s chest with a knife during a row in the car park of Tesco’s at Copdock has been jailed for eight months.

Roderick Buchan, who was living in his van, parked it in the store’s car park on July 15 at about 7.30pm to watch football on his phone, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Although the car park was empty Buchan parked “extremely close” to a car because he had wanted to improve his wi-fi connection, said Andrew Jackson, prosecuting.

The car driver was concerned at how close Buchan had parked to him and Buchan had opened his window and asked why he was panicking.

There was an exchange between them and when the driver’s two friends returned to the car there had been a further exchange.

Buchan had then got out of his van and threatened one of the car driver’s friends with the knife and then slashed the other friend, Archie Plummer, across the chest with the knife.

Buchan, 61, of no fixed address, admitted threatening Mr Plummer and another man with a knife and assaulting Mr Plummer causing him actual bodily harm.

Buchan claimed he was provoked and said he was worried about what would happen to his van if he was jailed.