A MAN who stabbed his girlfriend in the neck as they laid in bed, moments after telling her he loved her and just six weeks after she had given birth to his son, has been jailed for 14 years.

Darren Chawner, 29, attacked Leigh Anne Cook without warning at their home in Park Road, South Moor, near Stanley, in the early hours of August 6.

Fuelled by a cocktail of drink and drugs, he had accused the mother of their two sons of speaking to someone else on her mobile - when in fact she had only been posting pictures of their night out on Facebook, Newcastle Crown Court was told.

After cuddling her, he got her into a headlock, exposed her neck and plunged a four-inch knife into it.

When the 29-year-old tried to get away, he pushed her into a corner and stabbed her three more times as she cowered beneath him. He then tried to prevent her calling for help or getting out of the house.

Miss Cook, who had given birth to his second son six weeks earlier, was airlifted to hospital, where she was treated for five wounds and a collapsed lung.

Chawner, who appeared via video link, sobbed uncontrollably as Miss Cooke told him he had ruined everything and would not see their sons – the other aged five years at the time of the attack.

Describing a happy relationship of more than six years, Miss Cook said: “It makes me sick. I know how much of a good dad you are and you have thrown it all away. I cannot understand why you wanted to hurt me. I don’t understand why you would want me dead. Life was good. We had a lot to look forward to. If you wanted to hurt me why didn’t you use your fists?”

Jailing Chawner for attempted murder, Judge Paul Sloan, the Recorder of Newcastle, said: “This represents an abuse of power and trust involving an attack on your partner in her own home, where she should have been safe.”

Daniel Cordey, prosecuting said the couple had been out in Stanley earlier that evening with friends. Chawner, who had drunk whiskey, beer and taken cocaine at some point, had exhibited jealous behaviour towards her.

After arriving home, two of his friends came to the door, but Chawner denied them entry, firing off two shots with an airgun.

Chawner came back to bed when Miss Cook used her mobile to start putting pictures of the night out on Facebook.

Chawner asked her who she was she was on the phone to and she told him to go back to sleep.

Mr Cordey said: “The defendant cuddled her and told her he loved her. A short time later he got her in a headlock and turned her head, exposing her neck and stabbed her in the neck using a four-inch kitchen knife.

“Miss Cook did not realise at first that she had been stabbed and put her hand to her neck and felt blood. She jumped out of bed and went to look in the mirror, followed by the defendant who pushed her into the corner and continued to attack her with the knife as she crouched down.”

He stabbed her three times in the neck area and in the hand she held up to protect herself.

Her 19-year-old cousin, alerted by her screams, entered by the rooms to see him standing over a bloodied Miss Cook.

The cousin ran out to contact the police, but Chawner grabbed her mobile, as well as that of his partner.

He then locked the back door to prevent them getting out as a panic-stricken Miss Cook screamed “I am going to die”.

The two women managed to flee through the front door to call the emergency services.

After the attack. Chawner went to his father’s house in Washington, where he showered before later handing himself in to police.

Caroline Goodwin, mitigating, said Chawner was remorseful for his actions, adding “But for the drink and the drugs this would never happened, given this was a family, described most carefully and most poignantly by Miss Cook as a happy and a content family unit.”

Chawner denied attempted murder last November, but later changed his plea to guilty.

He was made subject of a life-long restraining order forbidding him from seeing his victim.