A violent man who had an “expressionless” look on his face when he tried to stab a man in an Ipswich street has been jailed for 66 months.

Sentencing 26-year-old Luke Mason, Judge Martyn Levett said that Mark Randall thought he was going to die in the attack outside the Premier Convenience store in Dickens Road in July.

“He felt his life was in danger and says he cannot seem to shake off the expressionless look on your face,” said the judge.

He said Mr Randall had spent nights lying awake replaying what happened over and over in his mind.

Judge Levett said: “There are more and more cases where knives are being used in the streets and this has to stop.

“People are being injured and will continue to be injured if we permit people to carry knives to seek retribution on others.

“I have to play my part in sentencing people who behave in the way you did.”

Mason, of Norwich Road, Ipswich, admitted attempting to cause grievous bodily harm with intent, assaulting a police officer and threatening a person with a knife.

Phillip Farr, prosecuting, said there had been an altercation between two groups outside the Premier Store during which Mason had disappeared and returned with a knife.

He had threatened the other group with the knife and had waved it around.

Mr Randall had tried to calm the situation down and Mason had turned on him and was heard to mutter: “I want to go back to jail.”

Mason had tried to stab Mr Randall several times, including while he was lying on the ground.

When the police arrived Mason had tried to throw the knife away and had kicked a police officer in the leg.

The court heard that in November 2015 Mason was jailed for nine years for attacking two guests at a party in Duke Street, Ipswich, with a machete.

Mason, who was living in Fore Street, Ipswich, had denied unlawful wounding, possession of an offensive weapon and wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm but was found guilty of all three charges.

Simon Gladwell, for Mason, said his client had been recalled to prison and wasn’t due to be released until July 2024