Man stabs his ex 31 times in front of their son, gets 24 years in jail

A man from Middlesbrough stabbed his ex-girlfriend 31 times in front of their son after he found a condom wrapper in her bathroom bin.

The 33-year-old man called Chris Blakemore had gone uninvited to his former girlfriend's house on Marske Lane in Bishopsgarth to ask for money and launched a frenzied attack after discovering the wrapper.

He picked up a chopping knife and attacked the woman 31 times for two straight minutes right in front of their seven-year-old son. The woman somehow managed to lock herself and her son in the bathroom.

She managed to call 999 and was later rushed to James Cook Hospital with a collapsed lung. The woman survived the attack since the knife had missed all of her major organs and arteries.

During the trial of the case at Teeside Crown Court, Blakemore denied trying to kill her and claimed that his ex-partner had tried to stab him first and that her injuries were caused when he was trying to take the knife from her hands.

However, he was convicted by a jury in December last year and has been sentenced to 24 years in jail, according to a report in The Mirror.

The court heard that the man used to repeatedly insult his partner and often borrowed money from her. He would send her abusive texts demanding to know about his ex-partner's love life.

"In all you inflicted 31 stab wounds, to her torso, her chest and back. She suffered a collapsed lung. You, on the other hand, had a single minor injury to your thumb. I wholly rule out any suggestion that she was the initial aggressor," said the judge.

In a statement read out to the court, the woman said: "My son has drawn pictures of a person being stabbed with a knife coming out of them, for his counsellor. He won't go to sleep unless he's in my bed now."