A MAN who stabbed his housemate in the chest with near fatal consequences has been jailed for 12 years.

Teesside Crown Court heard that Carl Ajib would almost certainly have died after he was stabbed three times with a knife by Mohammed Jama if it were not the fact that he received prompt medical treatment.

Jama, was the subject of a 40 page long psychiatric report which was ordered by the Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, after the defendant's conviction for attempted murder in February this year.

The 25-year-old, who was living in Brompton Street, Middlesbrough at the time of the attack, was subsequently detained in the high security Rampton hospital in Nottinghamshire.

His barrister Robert Woodcock said that although Jama was responsible for an exceedingly serious offence, it had not been established that he was habitually dangerous.

Mr Woodcock said Jama, who was flanked in the dock by five hospital staff, lived a "dystopian lifestyle" and also smoked the drug Khat which can lead to psychotic episodes among users.

However he said there was no evidence that he was suffering from such an episode when he attacked the victim.

Sentencing him to 12 years in jail, Judge Bourne-Arton said he was satisfied that at the time of the offence Jama was a dangerous individual.

The judge, who agreed there was no need to detain Jama in hospital, said there were a number of aggravating features to the attack including the use of a knife and the fact it was apparently motiveless.