A YOUNG man survived after he had his throat cut by a friend who wrongly believed he was seeing his partner.

Christopher Eager needed surgery on his larynx and spent five days in hospital recovering from multiple knife wounds.

The 20-year-old was attacked by Richard Jenkinson as he walked home with a group, including Jenkinson's girlfriend, after a night out.

A court heard yesterday that there was no foundation to Jenkinson's drunken belief that Mr Eager was having an affair with the young woman.

The confrontation happened in Hundens Lane, Darlington, shortly after midnight on March 31 as the friends made their way home.

Jenkinson, 24, is said to have approached the group and screamed at Mr Eager: "Do you think I'm a mug? Going with my lass. I'm no mug."

Jenkinson pulled out a bottle opener containing a blade, which he had been using earlier while he drank with other friends, and attacked Mr Eager.

Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, told Teesside Crown Court that Jenkinson fled from the scene after he confessed to bystanders.

Judge Peter Armstrong jailed Jenkinson, of Haughton Road, Darlington, for three years after he admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Peter Makepeace, in mitigation, said Jenkinson had no history of violence other than a conviction for affray as a 15-year-old, for which he was given a conditional discharge.

He said: "I entirely accept that there is no evidence that there was anything going on between the complainant and the defendant's girlfriend, and even if there was, it would not begin to excuse what happened.

"But the defendant believed it at the time, and that is consistent with this being a spontaneous, unplanned outburst of anger rather than a planned, calculated, cold attack.

"He does not impress as an emotionally mature 24-year-old.

"He has extremely strong feelings for the girlfriend, who he is still with, and simply snapped in the belief she had been unfaithful to him.

"He had taken a vast amount of alcohol that night and had a bottle opener with a blade. He accepts that he plunged the blade and that was a dreadful, dreadful act."