A jealous boyfriend stabbed his girlfriend in her thigh after she told him their relationship was over, a court heard.

Paul Martin locked her in her Dartford flat and punched her in the face before wounding her with a steak knife.

His girlfriend of four years grabbed the blade and smashed a window with a mug before screaming for help, Maidstone Crown Court was told.

Soaked in blood, she eventually managed to flee from the flat in Shakespeare Road to a neighbour’s home.

She told police Martin became angry after falsely accusing her of having an affair. He had checked her Facebook account.

He regularly texted from her phone to see what replies she received. She described him as being paranoid.

Prosecutor Trevor Wright said the attack happened three days before Christmas in 2014 when she told him she’d had enough.

He became aggressive and told her: “You’re not leaving me. You’re never leaving me. If I can’t have you then nobody will.”

After chasing her into the kitchen and knifing her in the leg, he continued to swing the blade around.

“She believed he was trying to kill her,” said Mr Wright.

“She put her hand out and grabbed the blade. She described him as being in a complete frenzy.”

Martin, of no fixed address, was found to be unfit to plead to charges of unlawful wounding and assault causing actual bodily harm but a jury found he had “done the act”.

He has previous convictions for harassment, threatening behaviour and battery.

Psychiatric reports stated the paranoid schizophrenic posed
an ongoing risk of “repeat harassment and possible stalking”, as well as possible harm to himself.

“You’re talking like I’m Jack the Ripper" - Paul Martin

He had told one psychiatrist they were a perfect couple and believed she would be waiting for him the day he was released from custody.

Describing the attack as “frenzied and terrifying”, Judge Martin Joy ordered that Martin be detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act.

When a second psychiatrist said he agreed with the order, Martin swore and shouted from the dock: “You’re talking like I’m Jack the Ripper.”