DRUG dealer who was branded ‘selfish and hedonistic’ had previously been jailed for attacking his then girlfriend with a Samurai sword.

Christopher Taylor was caught with £4,000 worth of the class B drug and £4,000 worth of Ketamine for his own personal use, when police raided his home in April.

And when he was sentenced to 18 months for a drug supply offence the judge told him his previous record played a significant part in his decision making.

Taylor, 23, pictured below, was jailed in 2016 for five years after he slashed his girlfriend with a Samurai sword during a drug-fuelled violent outburst.

The Northern Echo: Christopher TaylorChristopher Taylor

The-then 19-year-old grabbed the 17-year-old by the face and he held the sword against her neck counting backwards from 10.

Then he lashed at her causing a wound to her left forearm, which began to gush with blood and she ran to a bathroom.

Teesside Crown Court heard how he threatened to attack his mother as well as continuing to hold his former-girlfriend in the house using his Samurai sword to intimidate her before eventually telling her to go.

During the terrifying incident, Taylor told her: "You can't leave me. I'd rather cut you up than have you leave me."

When Taylor was arrested, police found cannabis and Diazepam on him as well as a collection of ornamental weapons at his parents’ home in Redmarshall, near Stockton.

The court heard how Taylor had vowed to give up drugs and turn his life around when he was released from prison.

Judge Stephen Ashurst, who sentenced him for his latest offending, heavily criticised him for failing to live up to his promise.

He said: “When you were only 19 you appeared before the-then Recorder of Middlesbrough Judge Bourne-Arton QC and received a 56-month sentence for a very serious offence of violence.

“The relevance of that offence is two-fold, first of all the court understood at that stage that one of the reasons you behaved in the way you did followed years of taking illegal drugs. It is known that you started at 13-14 when you were taking drugs that had impacted on your health and your behaviour.

“You could not have had more supportive parents, even after everything that you had done to them - they stood by you. Your pre-sentence report said your time in custody was a wake up call for you and you were reflecting on your drug use and on your release from custody, you would change your ways.

“Your parents stood by you; they did what many parents wouldn’t have been able to do; they bought you a house outright by the age of 21. You didn’t give up the drugs and you had re-mortgaged the house for £50,000, with their permission, because your drug debt had built up.”

During the drug raid earlier this year, officers also discovered £1,000 in cash alongside his Rolex and Cartier watches inside the home on Beacons Lane, Ingleby Barwick, his parents bought for him.

Taylor admitted possession with intent to supply cannabis and possession of the tranquiliser Ketamine.