A JEALOUS man who followed his former fiancee and repeatedly knifed her in her car at traffic lights in Birkenhead was jailed on Monday for eight years.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that Alan Chittock thought Jane Forrester was having an affair with another man.

He claimed he had the knife just to frighten her but stabbed her nine times in the lower back, shoulder and left arm - one wound entering her kidney and spleen-before she escaped.

Chittock, of Nenthead Close, Great Lumley, Chester-le-Street, County Durham, denied attemped murder but admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Miss Forrester.

Jailing Chittock Judge David Clark, QC, the recorder of Liverpool, said he was "somewhat cynical" about Chittock's contention that he only had the knife with him to frighten his former girlfriend.

The Judge said: "You deliberately followed her, concealed yourself, and waylaid her when she stopped at traffic lights.

"You invaded her car, spoke to her and attacked her."

The injuries could also have had far more devastating consequences, he said.

Mr John McDermott, prosecuting, said that 27-year-old Miss Forrester was attacked in her car in Whetstone Lane, near Charing Cross, Birkenhead, on the morning of July 6 this year.

She and 37-year-old Chittock bought a house together in County Durham in July last year after meeting via his sister 16 months earlier.

She got a job in the area and they lived together from November 1998 and were engaged. But the next month she told him she was not happy with their relationship.

In February she told him it was effectively over but he said he could not live without her and became convinced she was seeing another man.

She claimed he became possessive and jealous.

On one occasion he told her he would scar her for life if she left him.

She obtained a work transfer to Birmingham without telling him and in May he sent her letters saying he would kill himself if she left him.

Later that month she went to their house in County Durham to find he had caused a great deal of damage to it.

On the morning of the attack Miss Forrester was on her way to work in Stockport when the passenger door opened and Chittock got in.

The terrified woman tried to undo her seat belt but Chittock slapped her right cheek and swore at her.

She tried to open the driver's door to escape but recalls him hacking at her with a knife. Blood was pumping out of her and she thought she was dying.

She managed to open the door and threw herself out of the car, he said.

Five local council workers left their van and pursued Chittock who tried to ward them off with the knife.

Another motorist cut off Chittock's escape and he was disarmed with a brush. The motorist then held onto Chittock and led him back to the main road and the police.

Following the attack the victim needed four pints of blood and spent eight days in hospital.

She is very self-conscious about her scarring, said Mr McDermott.

When interviewed Chittock said he had come to Wirral from his sister's home in Stafford to make Miss Forrester talk to him.

He claimed she had been having a sexual relationship with another man, and found she had had his credit cards stopped which incensed him and he decided at 4am he would confront her.

Mr Michael Wolff, defending, said that Chittock, a man of previous good character, deeply regretted what had happened.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.