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Published: Thursday, 27 April 2017 13:01
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Written by News Editor
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Dentist Phillip Gale has been found not guilty of attempted murder, GBH and wounding,
at Preston Crown Court. The jury was unanimous on all three charges. He has now
been released from prison, where he had been since last October.
Gale had been accused of stabbing Andrew Smith when he
came home to find him drinking and taking cocaine with his wife. Phillip Gale told
the court he stabbed Smith in self-defence when he would not leave his home.
Preston Crown Court heard Smith, a drug user with a record for violence, had become
close to Gale’s wife, Jayne Masters, and the pair had started staying up late into
the night, drinking and taking cocaine.
On October 16, the court heard Gale came home from a trip to Blackpool and discovered
Smith in his house, once again. He told the court he asked him to leave, but when
Smith refused he took him by the shoulders to push him towards the door. He said:
“I didn’t intend on stabbing him. I didn’t intend on causing him any harm.” Smith,
he said, pinned him against the kitchen units, and unable to defend himself, Gale
told the court he reached for a knife. He said: “Initially I thought it would scare
him. After that, everything that happened with the knife, was me reacting to what
he did to me.”
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