A MAN who slashed a love rival after finding him in bed with his ex-girlfriend is starting a nine-year prison sentence.

Stephen Healey was asked to visit the house in Stockton by one of the woman's children who was worried about her mental health.

When Healey arrived, his former partner's sister "added fuel to the fire" by telling him she was upstairs with another man.

The 39-year-old charged to the bedroom, got a bottle from a wardrobe and attacked the other man with it.

The victim suffered wounds in five different places, including his neck, behind his left ear and right upper thigh, which needed stitches.

A judge told Healey that it was just a "fluke" that he missed the man's jugular vein by an inch and did not kill him.

Teesside Crown Court heard that Healey has rheumatoid arthritis and the bottle contained a morphine-based medicine which he had left at the house when the couple split up.

Paul Newcombe, said the April 13 attack was out of character and provided Judge Sean Morris with a number of references supporting Healey, who turned up at court with a sports bag containing his belongings.

He asked the judge to consider going outside the sentencing guidelines, and imposing a suspended prison sentence.

Healey, of Ainsdale Way, Middlesbrough, was convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm after a trial.

Judge Morris said his was "idiotic" not to plead guilty because his sentence would have been much shorter.

He said: "You have shown no remorse by having this trial. Your predicament today is entirely your own fault.

"This should have been a plea of guilty which would have been one third off a sentence. The longer the sentence, the bigger that one third feels. It was idiotic not to be honest.

"I suspect you were hoping that it was all going to go away by witnesses saying other things, and that, I'm afraid, is the risk you take, and the jury saw straight through your lies.

"What I am left with, apart from having to think about you, is the important thing of thinking about a young man who is now scarred for life.

"That cut to his neck was not far off his jugular, just an inch or so away, and you would not have been able to stem the blood loss.

"His life would have been over in probably two minutes, and you would have been facing a murder charge. You would be sentence now to life.

"You should regard yourself as being in a very fortunate position by pure fluke.

"The guidelines are there. They are not tram lines, but I do not think, given the nature of this attack and the effect it has had on the victim, justice will allow me to go outside the guidelines."

Mr Newcombe told the judge: "He deeply regrets it. He has destroyed his own life and those around him.

"He knows – he has brought his kit with him – that this is a sentence that will lie heavily on him.

"The matter appears to be an incident which happened in a particularly emotional set of circumstances.

"He has not gone around taking trouble to the door or intending to beat somebody up.

"He gets a text asking to go around to see if she [his ex-partner] is ok. When he gets there, her sister is there, and adding fuel to the fire, she lets it slip that there is another man upstairs.

"He is told there and then that this woman who has been in his life for many years has somebody else. He goes upstairs and has a moment when he reacts emotionally and lets himself down."

The victim showed the jury his wounds during the trial, and said: "Ive got these scars and I've got mental scars."

In an impact statement, he added: "As a result of the attack, I feel nervous walking the streets, and feel I have to look over my shoulder every five minutes.

"I am now even scared to have a relationship. The incident has left me emotionally and physically drained.

"My confidence has been knocked, and I even dream of having his hands around my neck. I wake up and can't breathe.

"Before the attack, I was successfully battling depression, getting better and stronger. Now this has kicked me back to the kerb."