A KNIFEMAN who forced two women to perform a sex show for him before repeatedly stabbing them was branded "a significant danger" as he was jailed for 16 years.

Mohamed Zahran's victims told after the case how they feared they were going to be raped and murdered during the bloodbath at a house in County Durham.

They described Zahran's "psycho" plan - carried out in front of a child who was struck-dumb by what she saw - as terrifying and they will never forget it.

A judge told him: "Your false imprisonment, the sexual activity you forced them to endure and your knife attack will haunt them for the rest of their lives."

Egypt-born Zahran is likely to be deported when he is freed from prison - which will only happen when officials no longer regard him as a risk or the public.

Judge Simon Phillips, QC, told him the attack was "brutally persistent" and said: "You grossly demeaned them, and there was severe degradation and humiliation."

Teesside Crown Court heard how Zahran admitted stabbing his victims after an argument - but told a jury that he had no memory of the bloody attack.

He was found guilty after a week-long trial in March of two counts each of causing a person to engage in sexual activity, sexual assault and false imprisonment.

Zahran, of Clarence Street, Bowburn, near Durham City, had earlier pleaded guilty to two charges of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent to do so.

During his trial, he claimed it was the idea of the women to put on the sex show on the living room floor "to trick me" and drew the curtains and locked the door.

He said he was later pushed against a wall, banged his head and as a result had no recollection of repeatedly knifing them both and stabbing himself in the stomach.

One of the women suffered six stab wounds to her left breast - she said "near my heart" - one to her back and had a fractured rib and punctured lung.

The other was knifed in the chest and back, and in the hip and left buttock, the jury heard. She had a cut to her liver and blood around her lungs.

One of them said Zahran he was talking to himself in Arabic before he hatched what she called "a psycho idea", and the child was "like stone - just mute".

Prosecutor Deborah Smithies told the court that the women suffered "gratuitous degradation" in what she described as a "sustained and prolonged" attack.

When police arrived after one of the victims escaped and raised the alarm, they found Zahran on the floor of the house with a knife sticking out of his abdomen.

James Bourne-Arton, mitigating, said former chef Zahran was "at a particularly low mood" at the time, and had worked hard during his 14 years in the UK.

He added: "It is hoped he will use his time in custody to his benefit. He appreciates he is likely to be deported, which is something that causes considerable fear and trepidation."

Judge Phillips told Zahran he will have to serve an extended five years on licence recall after his release, and will be on the sex offenders' register for life.

He said: "These women did not want to do what you were demanding. They were afraid you would hurt them. Fearing for their life, they complied.

"One of them told the jury she firmly believed you were going to rape her, but was prepared to die rather than give in further to your knife-point demands."