TEN years ago this week, a prison officer broke down as she told a court how she thought she was going to die when a convicted killer stabbed her in the back with a broken bottle.

Claire Lewis was working at Frankland High Security Prison, near Durham, when she and two colleagues were attacked by Kevan Thakrar, Newcastle Crown Court heard on October 17, 2011.

Thakrar, 23, who was serving a life sentence for a triple murder, had barricaded himself inside his cell for nearly 24 hours before the attack on March 13 last year.

He planned to lure the guards to his door before attacking them with the broken bottle, the court was told.

Thakrar, from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, denied the attempted murder of officers Craig Wylde and Miss Lewis and the wounding with intent of a third guard, Neil Walker, during the same incident.

Thakrar was jailed in 2008 by a judge at St Albans Crown Court for three murders and two attempted murders, and was admitted to G Wing at Frankland in March 2010.

In Darlington, a couple rescued by a neighbour when a devastating blaze swept through their home on October 18, 2011.

Matthew Melville, 20, and Melissa Chapman, 17, escaped with only the clothes on their backs and their dog after their Darlington home caught fire at 1am.

It is thought a laptop charger was responsible for the blaze, which destroyed the house, in Lansdowne Street, burning through the walls to the brick and leaving the downstairs rooms unrecognisable.

The couple were treated in hospital for smoke inhalation.

Finally, a couple proved to be an abandoned dog’s best friend after they made a 1,300-mile round trip to give the animal a home.

Jamie Lowe and his partner, Sarah Sarre, made the trip from St Sampson, in the Channel Island of Guernsey, to Darlington to claim Paddy, a three-year-old German shepherd-cross, from Dogs Trust, in Sadberge.

Ms Sarre said: “It was a long journey, but he is well worth it and we would recommend Dogs Trust to anyone in the UK looking to rehome a dog.”

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