A WOMAN suffered life-threatening injuries when an ornamental dagger was thrown into her stomach by her controlling fiancé, a court was told.

Realising the knife was embedded up to the hilt, and he was in a, “potentially difficult situation”, Steven Holman ignored her requests to ring for an ambulance and, instead, decided to deal with it by running the bath.

Durham Crown Court heard Holman pleaded with her to say it was an accident, as he dragged her upstairs to the bathroom, intending to remove the knife.

Dan Cordey, prosecuting, told the court his fiancée, who was unable to walk, managed to dissuade him from doing so.

Holman contacted a friend on Facebook telling them his partner fell on the knife and the friend rang for an ambulance.

A short time later, he rang the ambulance service to check if it was on its way, repeating his story that she fell on the dagger.

Mr Cordey said: “By this stage, he was clearly beginning to realise the extent of the situation, as she could be heard saying she was going into shock and was bleeding badly.

“On arrival, the paramedics were shown to the bathroom, where she was lying on clothes.”

Although she told the paramedics she fell on the 6ins-long knife, she gestured to make it clear what really happened.

An air ambulance flew her to Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary, where she underwent emergency life-saving surgery, but recovered well from abdominal injuries, and left hospital a fortnight later.

Mr Cordey said Holman, who had been in an 11-month “controlling” relationship with the victim, told police that she suffered the injuries while trying to open a letter with the dagger.

He claimed that despite telling her to take care, she fell over onto the knife.

The court heard the defendant has a previous conviction for assaulting his ex-wife.

Holman, 28, of John Street, Co-operative Villas, near Stanley, admitted wounding with intent, having previously denied it.

The court was told he has lifelong learning difficulties and previously received treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Amrit Jandoo, mitigating, said: “It’s a quite appalling set of circumstances for the victim, but, thankfully, it does not appear it will have any long-lasting consequences for her.”

Imposing a seven-year and two-month prison sentence, Recorder Euan Duff made a restraining order preventing Holman from trying to contact his former fiancée, “indefinitely”.