AN Iraqi asylum seeker stabbed a fellow countryman 16 times after being threatened with blackmail for turning down his sexual advances.

Hemen Feteh repeatedly plunged the five-inch pocket knife into refugee Shakawan Ali Muhammed in Middlesbrough town centre, a court heard yesterday.

Feteh, 21, reacted furiously when Mr Muhammed asked him for sex. He thenpulled out the blade when Mr Muhammed threatened to tell other members of the Iraqi community he had seen Feteh having sex with another man.

Teesside Crown Court heard Mr Muhammed, who was 18 at the time of the attack on February 23, was knocked to the ground and repeatedly stabbed before managing to break free and run off.

He was chased for some distance along Borough Road until he got to the home of a friend, who called the emergency services while Feteh fled.

The teenager spent five days in hospital and Home Office pathologist Dr James Sunter said a blow which penetrated his chest wall missed vital organs only by chance. Dr Sunter's report, read to the court by prosecutor Brian Forster concluded: "It was a sustained and potentially lethal knife assault. The injured man is fortunate to have made such an uncomplicated recovery."

In a written statement he gave to police after being arrested in a nearby garden, Feteh said: "I produced the knife on the spur of the moment. I only wanted him to realise how upset his idea had made me."

Feteh, of no fixed address, but previously of Borough Road, Middlesbrough, admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. He was jailed for three years.

The judge, Mr Justice Andrew Smith, said Feteh's guilty plea and the fact he was of previous good character enabled him to impose a sentence shorter than that warranted by the seriousness of the attack.

Defence barrister Toby Hedworth said Feteh, who had his asylum application refused last year but has temporary leave to remain until 2006, was a victim of torture in his homeland.

The court heard the victim has forgiven Feteh since the attack.