A KNIFEMAN who left his victim close to death after a year long hate campaign was jailed yesterday.

Christopher Davis, 22, stabbed unemployed Mark Russell in the back after a "long period of bullying and terrorising", Newcastle Crown Court heard.

The 26-year-old suffered a punctured aorta, the main artery to the heart, in the attack outside his Calver Court home, in South Shields on April 27.

He had to undergo surgery and needed 26 units of blood after the knife penetrated his body by 15 to 20cm.

Robin Denny, prosecuting, told the court that Mr Russell was unconscious for a fortnight and spent some weeks in intensive care after the "deliberate and near fatal stabbing".

The court was told that a year before the attack, Mr Russell had asked to be rehoused from his home in Green Lane, South Shields, due to ill-feeling between him and Davis. But a short while after moving into his new home he realised that Davis had moved into Grindleford Court nearby.

Defence barrister Andrew Finlay said Davis "snapped" after getting home to find a window had been smashed and he decided to confront Mr Russell about it.

Davis admitted wounding with intent. Further charges of assault and theft in relation to Mr Russell were ordered to lie on file after the guilty plea was entered.

At the time of the attack, he had just been released from a three-year sentence for robbery, where he brandished an axe at a shopkeeper in Autoparts Discount Store in South Shields and made of with £100.

Mr Recorder Palmer jailed Davis for six years.