A jealous boyfriend has been jailed for a Valentine's Day attack on a friend who admitted sleeping with his partner.
Sean Hills pinned victim Lee Evans to a sofa and stabbed him so hard in the face and neck that he bent the blade of the short kitchen knife and left him with deep wounds.
He lost control after Evans told him he had slept with his girlfriend and claimed she had been seeing other men as well, Exeter Crown Court was told.
One stab wound almost cut the jugular vein and the victim was spared more serious injury because two other people who saw the attack pulled him away and one used a golf club to subdue him.
After the stabbing Hills went on the run and walked all the way from Exeter to Torquay to escape the police, only handing himself in when they released his picture asked the public to search for him.
Hills, aged 26, of Geneva Court, Exeter, admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Lee Evans, who needed hospital treatment and was off work for three weeks with his injuries.
He was jailed for six years by Judge Francis Gilbert, QC, who told him he had terrified everyone who was in the flat at the time.
He said:"You stabbed him and told him you were going to kill him and there was a struggle in which two other people tried to pull you off him.
"You dropped the knife and ran off, leaving him bleeding heavily from wounds in his neck, behind his ear, and on his shoulder, which fortunately have been repaired without further problem.
"You must clearly have brought the knife to the scene. It was in your pocket and you produced it when you went to stab him.
"It was extremely frightening for everyone there and he really feared for his life."
Miss Mary McCarthy, prosecuting, said the stabbing happened at the flat of neighbour Richard Ashton, where the victim was staying on the night of the attack.
She said Hills' girlfriend had slept with Mr Evans some months before but they had both kept it secret until the night before the stabbing, when Mr Evans told him what he had done.
Hills confronted his partner who claimed she had been raped and he phoned the police to report this before going to see Mr Evans with the knife in his pocket.
He went to Mr Ashton's flat three times and attacked Mr Evans in the early hours of Valentine's Day morning when he told him the sex with his girlfriend had been consensual.
Miss McCarthy said:"At that stage Hills' mood changed and he became very volatile and said 'if two people get murdered here tonight it won't be because of me but because of what happened'.
"He pulled the knife from his pocket without warning and swung it at Mr Evans' head. There was a struggle in which he victim said Hills was using all his strength to stab him in the head.
"Mr Ashton at first thought he was punching him but then realised he had a knife and tried to stop him but had little effect.
"Mr Lee was begging for his life and trying to grab the blade and Mr Ashton got hold of a golf club and used it to stop the attack."
Another housemate Teresa White helped pull Hills away and as he left he shouted at his girlfriend's flat that it was her fault he had stabbed Mr Evans. He left Exeter and went to Torquay on foot."
Miss McCarthy said the victim suffered three serious wounds. One nearly cut the jugular, one went 4 cm into the head and one 4 cm into the biceps.
Mr Joss Ticehurst, defending, said the victim had upset Hills by telling him his girlfriend had slept not only with him but other men as well.
He said:"This was a difficult and fraught night for him and he regrets his actions."
