A TEENAGER described as a danger to the public was yesterday jailed for eight years for stabbing a woman in the chest as she lay in her bed.

The woman, in her 50s, woke to find 18-year-old Ian Byers standing over her, naked, and holding a large kitchen knife.

Durham Crown Court was told she felt the knife put to her neck before he thrust it towards her chest.

The victim, who let Byers move in to her house only days earlier, in January, realised she had been stabbed when she put her hand to her chest and saw blood.

James Adkin, prosecuting, said she wrestled the knife from Byers, who did not put up much of a struggle.

She then ran downstairs and rang the police, while Byers remained in the room.

When police arrived at the house, in Catchgate, near Stanley, County Durham, they found Byers sitting on the bed sobbing.

The victim was taken to hospital for treatment to the wound, which penetrated her chest to a depth of 2cm.

She was given stitches to the wound and it is thought she will not be scarred.

Byers, of no fixed abode, but formerly of Newmarket Street, Consett, admitted wounding with intent.

Brian Russell, mitigating, said Byers was remorseful for his actions and at a loss to explain why he carried out the attack, which took place after he had been drinking.

Jailing Byers, Judge Richard Lowden told him: "You got it into your mind to stab this woman. It is a mercy you did not kill her."