A SPURNED boyfriend hid under a bush to spy on his former lover at work before following her home and throttling her.

Ian Fawcett forced his way into the teenager's address and shoved her into the stairs, Teesside Crown Court heard.

He grabbed a knife from a kitchen cutlery drawer, pinned the hairdresser to a wall and held the blade to her throat.

Fawcett, 28, was today (Monday) jailed for four years and three months after he admitted a string of assault charges.

He also attacked two men who tried to help his victim when they heard screams coming from her Middlesbrough home in May.

Fawcett bit a two centimetre chunk out of one have-a-go-heroes' ear, and left the other with multiple knife wounds to his arm and body.

Judge Michael Taylor told the jealous dad-of-two that they were "terrifying, frenzied attacks" and biting was "disturbing".

The court heard that Fawcett could not cope with the break-up following a six-month romance with the pretty 17-year-old.

After the teenager blocked him from calling her mobile phone, he turned up outside her salon, spat at her and threw his bike at her.

He sat on a wall drinking, then lay under a bush to watch what she was doing and who she was talking to, said Deborah Smithies, prosecuting.

During the assault at her home, Fawcett also bit her on the cheek and rammed a knife into a wall near her head, the court heard.

Rebecca Brown, mitigating, said he now accepts the affair is over, and he has returned to his partner and two young children.

Miss Brown told the court that Fawcett has used his time well in jail on remand, and acquired qualifications in gardening, maths and English.

Judge Taylor told Fawcett, of Shelley Road, Middlesbrough: "The act of biting is very unpleasant and rather disturbing.

"You had a relationship with a young girl, 11 years your junior. That relationship came to an end, and you would not accept it.

"Fuelled by jealousy, you set about on May 30 on a truly terrifying course of criminal conduct.

"Two young men acting as good Samaritans were set about you in two frenzied and terrifying attacks."

In an impact statement, the teenager said she is scared to go out and has had to move home since the incident six months ago.

She said she has been put on anti-depressants and sleeping pills by her doctor, and has not been able to relax.

The man who had his ear bitten said he cannot look in the mirror because the sight gives him flashbacks to the attack.

Fawcett was also given an indefinite restraining order to keep away from his former girlfriend and her younger sister.