A MAN told how he thought he was going to die after being stabbed his partner - who is now serving a two-year prison sentence for wounding.

He believed he had been knifed in the heart and battled to flee the attack from Stephanie Davies at her Darlington flat in January.

The 53-year-old managed to escape after smashing Davies's head off a coffee table and drove himself to hospital, Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday.

Judge Stephen Ashurst heard from prosecutor Jenny Haigh how the victim suffered a wound close to his arm-pit, which was stitched during surgery.

In a statement after the horror, he said: "I thought I was close to being murdered . . . I feel lucky to be alive. She could have killed me."

He added that he was frightened because she was aggressive, had an interest in murder programmes, and the court heard he had been attacked by her in 2013.

In the earlier incident, he suffered cuts to his forehead, a black eye, scratch marks to his neck, and when police arrived, Davies assaulted them.

Judge Ashurst said of the January 16 stabbing: "The most serious aspect was the single penetrating wound which resulted in him going to hospital.

"That's not the whole story because you were bating him, poking him and pushing him around. He tried to tell you to stop, but you wouldn't take any notice.

"You cut him near his arm-pit. Fortunately no serious injury was caused, although plainly the wound bled very heavily, and he feared you had penetrated a vital organ.

"Even though you had stabbed him, you were still trying to get to him. This was a sustained assault. Had it not been for his presence of mind to defend himself, the harm may have been very considerably greater, if not fatal.

"The court has to take a serious view of the deliberate use of weapons because it sees it on a daily basis often, the devastating impact of knife injuries."

The court heard how the incident was sparked by earlier remarks made by the victim, who admitted they were unwise, and now wants to rekindle the relationship.

Martin Towers, mitigating, said: "Regrettably, there was an argument and this was a perfect storm. The build-up to this and then the trigger."

He said Davies, of Inverary Close, Darlington, who admitted a charge of unlawful wounding, had a difficult life, and suffered a still-birth in 2012.

"This is an unusual case, an unusual defendant and an unusual set of circumstances," said Mr Towers. "She is sorry for what she did."