A knife-wielding dad stabbed a man in the chest for levelling homophobic language towards his son.

Mark Edge, from Herne Bay, plunged the six-inch kitchen blade into Jack Stone’s left chest, puncturing a lung and narrowly missing the heart.

The 53-year-old was today jailed at Canterbury Crown Court for five years and four months.

Struggling to breathe and with his body “shutting down”, Mr Stone was rushed by air to a London hospital following the attack in Station Chine, Herne Bay, in March 2019.

Edge, of Victoria Park, would plead guilty at an early opportunity to wounding with intent.

But he argued his violent reaction came after Mr Stone bullied his son and instigated the attack on that fateful day, prompting a trial of issue on Wednesday.

The attack flowed from a row earlier in the afternoon between Hayden Knight, Edge’s son Alfie and Mr Stone, the court heard.

Mr Stone, 27, allegedly levelled a lurid remark towards the pair and Knight, 19, unveiled a knife inside his waistband.

Giving evidence, Mr Stone said: “I asked them if they were going to use the knife and I told them I would knock them out before they could.”

Shortly after returning to a friend’s home in Station Chine, Edge, Alfie, Knight and another individual knocked on the door, Mr Stone said.

“I went to the front gate so we could talk,” Mr Stone continued.

“(Edge) presented a knife with an upper-cut motion - he shoved it into my chest.”

Asked to describe the level of force, he said: “It hit me with enough force it sort of knocked me off my feet.

“After that there was a lot of shouting and screaming.”

Giving evidence, Mr Stone told how Alfie and the other teenager fled as Edge walked off with Knight, “proudly” holding the blade.

“He is holding the knife in front of him looking very proud, holding the blade, walking with Hayden, looking like they had achieved something,” he said.

Mr Stone said he soon collapsed as “my body was slowly shutting down” before being rushed to King’s College Hospital.

After his lung was drained, Mr Stone discharged himself days later, the court heard.

Mr Stone denied using homophobic language or provoking Edge moments before he was stabbed.

Yet Alfie, 18, argued Mr Stone had targeted himself and Knight, with Edge claiming he picked up the knife "spontaneously."

But Judge Mark Weekes ruled he was “satisfied to be sure” Mr Stone used the abhorrent language and provoked Edge’s group moments before the stabbing.

The judge also dismissed Edge’s claims he grabbed the blade while leaving his home “spontaneously”.

Sentencing, Judge Weekes told Edge: “There had been an argument between your son and a friend which you became aware of.

“As a consequence you went to the address of Mr Stone.

“You had taken from the house a kitchen knife and stabbed Mr Stone in what is described as an upward swinging motion with full force.

“It is a miracle indeed that you are not being tried or convicted for a much more serious offence.”

Knight, of High Street, Chatham, was sentenced to four months inside a Young Offender Institute for possession of a blade in a public place in August last year.