Beggar who stabbed passerby in the eye for refusing to give him cash is jailed for 2 years

Homeless Meshach Harrison stabbed the victim in the eye inside a Birmingham restaurant

A beggar has been jailed for just two years for blinding a Good Samaritan who offered to buy him food.

Homeless Meshach Harrison stabbed the victim in the eye inside a Birmingham restaurant.

The thug had repeatedly demanded cash from the 25-year-old and rebuffed offers of food.

Harrison, 29, had been due to stand trial for possession of an offensive weapon and inflicting grievous bodily harm before he admitted the GBH offence at Birmingham Crown Court.

However, his two-year sentence was condemned as 'appalling' by the city MP whose constituency includes the crime scene in Soho Road, Handsworth.

Khalid Mahmood (Labour, Perry Barr) challenged the judge who imposed the term to justify it to traders worried about crime.

'I’m very concerned about the length of the sentence,' he said. 'It should have been far more severe.

Detectives released CCTV footage of Harrison after the attack, which happened inside Spices restaurant around 7pm on December 5 last year.

The beggar asked the victim, who was with a friend, for a cigarette.

He was given one but quickly returned, asked for cash and continued to harass the pair as they walked along the street.

Speaking at the time of the attack, police said the man was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.Despite offering to buy Harrison food, the victim was stabbed in the left eye with an unknown object.

Det Con Sharon Duncan, from Force CID, said last December: 'The beggar approached the two men on five or six occasions and, even though they offered to buy him food, he kept asking for cash.

'Finally he struck one of the men in his left eye with an unknown object.

'The young man was rushed to hospital, where he had to undergo surgery. His eye was saved, but unfortunately he has lost the sight in it.

'This is a devastating loss to a young man, who just appeared to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.'

Justice Minister Lord Faulks said: 'Crime is falling and tough sentences are available to punish criminals, including life sentences for serious violent offences.

'Sentencing in individual cases is a matter for the judges, taking into account all the facts of each case and the relevant sentencing guidelines.'

Culled from DAILY MAIL