A Labrador man has been sentenced to jail for stabbing his mate in the back

A Gold Coast man who stabbed his mate in the back with a kitchen knife after the pair got into a fight over a drug debt will be released from jail in November after a court heard the victim went “looking for trouble”.

A GOLD Coast man who stabbed his mate in the back with a kitchen knife after they got into a fight over a drug debt will be out of jail in November after a court heard the victim went “looking for trouble”.

Luke John Rogerson, 23, was on Tuesday sentenced to three years’ jail after pleading guilty to grievous bodily harm in the Southport District Court last August.

The same court on Tuesday heard Rogerson had known the man he stabbed for at least four years before things soured over a drug debt.

Shortly before the attack, the victim punched Rogerson in the head while he was sleeping and banished him from his home, the court heard.

Judge Paul Smith. Picture: Tara Croser.

He later found out about the debt, allegedly owed to a mutual friend, and began messaging Rogerson on Facebook demanding to fight and saying he would come to his home to get the money.

“(He said he would) f**k you up and show you weren’t a big man,” Judge Paul Smith recounted on Tuesday.

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The court heard the victim left his home and arrived at Rogerson’s Labrador address around 6.30pm in July 2019, where he “invaded the place basically”.

Rogerson and the man began to fight and during the scuffle, he stabbed the victim in the back, leaving a 10-12cm wound.

He required surgery and Judge Smith said Rogerson and the victim were “very lucky this man wasn’t killed”.

Defence barrister John McInnes.

Defence barrister John McInnes, said the victim had arrived at his client’s house on the night he was stabbed “looking for trouble”.

“ … he didn’t go up behind him and stab him in the back … (it wasn’t) if we could use the words coward stab,” he said.

However, the court heard Rogerson hid in a cupboard in an attempt to avoid police before being arrested.

In sentencing, Judge Smith said he accepted the man had acted in self-defence, but his actions in stabbing the man had gone beyond what was reasonable in the circumstances.

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He said “the complainant sounds like an unpleasant sort of person” who had lied to police and tried to pervert the course of justice following the incident.

Rogerson, who works as a deckhand, will be eligible for parole in November this year after serving 154 days on remand.