A WIGTON man who had just stabbed a man in the face with a large knife told police: "I stab people because I'm good at it," a jury heard.

The knife attack - in King Street, Wigton, on April 12 - left the victim Robert Pattinson with five inches of the knife's blade buried in his face and skull, missing his carotid artery by millimetres.

He was lucky to survive, Carlisle Crown Court was told.

Scott Thomas Topping, 39, of Mulligan's Court, Wigton, had denied attempting to murder Mr Pattinson.

On the first day of his trial, the jury of eight men and four women heard that Topping had already admitted the less serious allegation of intentionally causing Mr Pattinson grievous bodily harm.

But he insists he did not intend to kill his victim.

Opening the case, prosecutor Jeremy Grout-Smith told the jury: "The crown say that this defendant tried to kill Robert Pattinson by stabbing him with a large knife, with a blow which has been described as a right hook; and it was probably aimed for the throat."

The prosecutor said there had been simmering disagreement between the defendant and Mr Pattinson, who had both been out and about in Wigton on the evening of the stabbing.

Mr Pattinson was in the Throstle's Nest pub with his family when Topping came into the pub.

"The defendant could be heard saying, even at this early stage of the evening," said Mr Grout-Smith, "that he wanted to stab somebody."

Topping tried to provoke an argument with a family from Newcastle who were in the pub, said the prosecutor.

But he was pulled away by friends.

Later that night, outside the pub, Topping shouted at Mr Pattinson but was ignored. A witness saw Topping trying to punch Mr Pattinson, who was taller than him.

Mr Pattinson - known locally to do some boxing - had leant backwards, after which the defendant fell and Mr Pattinson punched him in the face.

After this encounter, the jury was told, Topping went to his home nearby and collected two knives before returning to King Street.

Mr Pattinson left the pub after noticing the defendant outside, behaving "aggressively" towards this mother.

Concerned, he went outside.

He told Topping: "Grow up and go home."

Mr Pattinson then told the defendant that he had no problem with him, and offered to shake hands.

It was soon after this, as Mr Pattinson was turning to walk back into the pub with his girlfriend, that Topping attacked him, the court heard.

Mr Pattinson saw the defendant's whole arm and hand come flying over towards him, in what he described as a massive right hook.

Mr Grout-Smith said the knife was left buried in Mr Pattinson's face and skull.

After landing the blow, the court heard, Topping was seen to smile, and comment: "Oh yeah!"

"He sounded really pleased," said Mr Grout-Smith.

A friend of the victim drove him to The Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle, where he underwent emergency surgery and was put into an induced coma.

A pathologist later noted how the blade had passed through an area of the victim's head which is crammed with major blood vessels, the blade coming to rest near the base of his skull, millimetres from the carotid artery.

The doctor said: "I am of the opinion that the track of the knife wound was such that it could easily have proved lethal."

The blow would have involved "severe force," he said.

Mr Grout-Smith said: "Put simply, Robert Pattinson is very lucky to be alive."

Referring to comments made by the defendant when police arrived at this home to arrest him, Mr Grout-Smith said: "He made several significant comments to the officers, which you will hear because they were recorded on body camera. He said this of Robert Pattinson: 'If he's not dead, I don't want to know; I'm not interested. I stab people because I'm good at it."

Mr Grout-Smith said tests later showed no trace of alcohol in his body, though there was evidence that he had taken cocaine.

The barrister added: "The defendant says he has little, or no, recollection of what he did that night.

"The prosecution challenge that assertion.

"The prosecution say, quite simply, that he was a fully functioning person. He may well have taken drugs; and he was certainly agitated, and certainly angry. But he was a fully functioning person and fully responsible for his actions."

The trial continues.