A JEALOUS boyfriend who launched a terrifying knife attack on a man in his home was jailed for life yesterday.

Robert Thompson, 25, violently confronted Kevin Donkin because he thought he was getting too friendly with his girlfriend, Stacey Straughan.

Mr Donkin was left with three stab wounds - one almost 10cm long, which went through his ribs and punctured his left lung.

He would have died but for speedy medical intervention.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how Thompson, who already lived with another girlfriend Julie Ewart, who was pregnant, confronted Mr Donkin in his home in Sulgrave, Washington, Wearside, in the early hours of November 21, last year.

Christopher Prince, prosecuting, told the court how Mr Donkin was friends with Miss Straughan but already had a girlfriend of his own and was asleep in bed with her when Thompson turned up at his door.

Mr Prince said: "The defendant believed that the injured party had been making approaches to the defendant's girlfriend.

"He used a washing up liquid bottle to spray soap into his face and then lunged towards him in the hallway.

"All Mr Donkin recalls is the two scuffling and then realising he had been stabbed."

Despite burning his clothes and having a bath in an attempt to wash away vital evidence, Thompson, of Trafalgar Road, Sulgrave, was arrested that same day and admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

John Wilkinson, mitigating, told the court: "He should not have inflicted the injuries he did."

Thompson received a mandatory life sentence due to previous robbery and firearm convictions relating to garage raids when he was 16.