A ‘sexual predator’ stabbed a teenage girl in the back after she attempted to expose his deviant behaviour, a court heard.

Ellis Dismore tracked down the girl and repeatedly stabbed her as she ran through the streets screaming for help before a motorist came to her rescue.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, suffered a punctured lung, and required emergency treatment from the Great North Air Ambulance Service to save her life.

Nick Dry, prosecuting, said the university graduate created a fake teenager’s profile, using the name James Wilson, before targeting the teenager and eventually persuading her to send sexually explicit images of herself.

The jury heard how the 23-year-old’s behaviour became increasingly controlling and disturbing as he tried to prevent the girl from spending time with her friends and he made a number of vile threats to her.

Mr Dry said the Middlesbrough man threatened to publish the photographs online if she didn’t continue speaking to him on Snapchat after she tried to end the relationship.

A threat he carried out by publishing them on a number of social media networks for her friends and family to see, the barrister said.

Jurors were played three voice notes, which were sent to the alleged victim’s mother, where a male voice can be made making ‘abhorrent’ threats to rape and murder the teenager, who he had never actually met.

Outlining the attempted murder charge, Mr Dry said the pair crossed in the street and it was only when she heard him ask her to call an ambulance as he was having a heart attack that she realised who was speaking to her.

“Petrified and panicked, she quickened her step and then began to run while she was on the phone to her friend,” he said.

“CCTV and dashcam footage showed the defendant in hot pursuit as she fled, screaming, and shouting for help.

“She fell to the ground as the defendant closed in for the kill - all of this happened in broad daylight.

“She managed to get to her feet when a passing motorist, alerted by her screaming, stopped to intervene.

“She got into the car just as the defendant stabbed her to the back and chest.”

Jurors watched CCTV footage of the accused chasing the teenager as ran through the streets screaming for help.

The knife attack happened at around 3pm on Thursday, June 22, on Premier Road, Middlesbrough, and she was taken to James Cook University Hospital for treatment.

Mr Dry branded Dismore a ‘sexual predator’ after he fled the scene, leaving the teenager seriously injured.

Cleveland Police carried out its first interview with her while she was still laid in her hospital bed the following day.

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The teenager told officers that it was only after the accused stabbed her in the leg that she realised that he had already stabbed her in the back.

When asked how she felt as a result of the attack, she said: “I’m scared to go out and scared to be near men because I’m scared it will happen again.”

Dismore, of Stoneyhurst Avenue, Middlesbrough, denies charges of attempted murder, wounding with intent, three counts of making indecent images of children and a further six charges of distributing indecent images of children.

The trial continues.