A budding actor who played a young version of Frank Gallagher in the hit TV show Shameless, stabbed a partygoer after being told his Facebook page had been hacked in a practical joke.
Jaime Carroll, 25, was throwing a party at Mere Drive, Didsbury, Manchester, in August last year when he blew up and stabbed Richard Page, 23.
A jury at Manchester Crown Court was told Carroll lost his temper when he was told he had been ‘fraped’ in a practical joke.
Carroll took a knife from his kitchen and confronted a group of people who had been at the party, demanding to know who had been tampering with his Facebook page.
In fact, no-one in the group was responsible. Some of his own friends had played the joke on him.
The court was told Mr Page raised his leg as Carroll moved towards him. Carroll fell over but bounced back up and stabbed Mr Page, causing a puncture wound to the stomach which needed emergency surgery.
Carroll admitted he was stupid to pick up the knife to try to scare the group into leaving but did not intend to hurt anyone.
But a jury found him guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
And he was warned he can expect a substantial prison term when he is sentenced later this month.
Carroll has won awards for his work which includes acting, directing, video editing, scriptwriting and producing.
He was cast as a young version of TV layabout, Frank Gallagher in the Channel 4 show Shameless – although his scenes were cut.
Carroll is a sci-fi geek and his Twitter page boasts he will one day produce Doctor Who
Moments after the incident he told friends he feared he was going to go to prison and asked them to lie for him and say he was acting in self defence, the jury was told.
Carroll said he was going to say the victim went for him and he was defending himself.
Mr Page had gone to the party with a group of friends celebrating a 21st birthday.
The group had been invited by Carroll’s housemate but he asked the defendant to try to get them to leave.
Carroll sprinted to his parents’ house nearby to get support and came back with his brother Aaron.
While he was out, he got a tweet from a friend saying his Facebook page had been hacked.
When he got back to Mere Drive the group were in the cul-de sac ready to leave.
Carroll went into the house and came back out with the knife which had been used earlier to cut lemons for the party.
In the confrontation that followed, Carroll reportedly said: “I’m going to kill you. I’m going to do you in.”
The court was told no-one in the group was aggressive and they were laughing at Carroll as he was trying to ‘big himself up’.
Mr Page was in hospital for eight days after the operation following the stabbing.
Carroll looked shocked as the jury returned its verdict by a majority of 10-2. He was remanded on bail until July 29 when will be sentenced.
Images courtesy of Jaime Carroll via YouTube, with thanks.
For more on this story and many others, follow Mancunian Matters on Twitter and Facebook.
