Jailed: Stab frenzy man given 16 years for attack on partner

Scott David Jones, 41, who was found guilty of attempted murder at an earlier hearing, was also made the subject of a 15-year restraining order.

Jones, of St Mary's Close, Chirk, near Oswestry, had denied the charge and insisted that he loved the victim, but admitted wounding her with intent to cause her grievous bodily harm.

Judge Rhys Rowlands, sitting at Mold Crown Court yesterday, ordered him not to approach his victim or her address, or to post anything about her on social media.

The judge said that he could not be sure that the defendant had taken the knife to the victim's flat, but he had certainly taken it from the kitchen to her bedroom where the attack took place.

"You claim to have no recollection of what you did that day, putting your memory loss down to the fact that you had been drinking," Judge Rowlands told him.

"Whether that is a genuine loss of recall, only you will know."

Jones had said in a letter to the court that he fully regretted what he had done and was disgusted with himself. He wanted the victim and her family to know how sorry he was. But the judge said that had a hollow ring to it – because he had denied the charge and was convicted at trial. Jones' first reaction to the police was to claim the victim had started to self harm in front of him and that he left in order to defuse the situation.

In a victim impact statement the woman, who suffered three deep and potentially life-threatening stab wounds to the abdomen, said she now suffered nightmares and flashbacks and had been unable to return to her own home where the attack occurred.

Jones was convicted by an 11 to one majority by the jury on November 11.

His trial had heard that the attack happened in Wrexham on May 10 this year when Jones had gone to the victim's flat drunk and, after threatening to kill her, he followed her to the bedroom and pulled out a large kitchen knife from inside his jacket.

Mr Mark Connor, prosecuting, said that Jones told her she had better ring her daughter and smoke her last cigarette before dragging her on to the bed and stabbing her. He said the victim was a vulnerable woman attacked in her own home who had been left with psychological harm after he lost his temper and attacked her.

The jury had also heard that before the stabbing Jones had grabbed her around the throat and pushed her up against the hall cupboard and punched her to the mouth while choking her.

He had also threatened to "get some of his friends to beat her up" and said that he was going to petrol bomb her flat.

Mr Duncan Bould, for Jones, told the court yesterday that, now sober, his client deeply regretted what he had done and had taken positive steps to rehabilitate himself.