A KNIFE wielding thug terrified a former girlfriend so much that she plunged from a second floor balcony as she attempted to escape, a court heard.

The 16-year-old victim suffered serious injuries, including broken bones in her spine and fractures to a leg and wrist.

Callous Anthony West, meanwhile, telephoned for an ambulance for himself, claiming that his former girlfriend had stabbed him.

But the 22-year-old later admitted the wounds were self-inflicted and that he lied to try to save his own skin.

West was jailed for three years by a judge at Maidstone Crown Court after admitting inflicting grievous bodily harm and false imprisonment. His not guilty plea to causing grievous bodily harm with intent was accepted.

Dominic Connolly, prosecuting, said the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, went to West’s flat at Ceres Court, Murston, near Sittingbourne, on August 3 last year.

She did not feel well and told West that she would watch a film and then leave. But within about five minutes of her arriving, he blocked the front door and accused her of cheating on him with other men.

During a two-hour ordeal, said Mr Connolly, West punched the girl to the face several times and bit her on the cheek. He then pulled a knife with a 12in blade from a rucksack and told her she was going to die.

“He held it to her throat and face,” he said. “He threatened her with the knife. She begged him to be allowed to leave, but he would not let her.”

West told her: “I want to let you go but I know you will go and tell everyone and I will go to prison for it.”

The prosecutor said: “There came a time when she realised she was not going to get out of the flat. She ran to the balcony on the second floor and started screaming for help.”

West asked her to go back into the flat but she said she could not trust him. She asked where the knife was and he said it was in the kitchen.

As she moved to go back in, he ran at her brandishing the knife. He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her towards the door.

She clung on to the railings and tried to escape by climbing onto a neighbour’s balcony. It was as she was doing so that she hurtled 20-30ft to the ground.

West then stabbed himself and told the emergency services that his ex-girlfriend had attacked him.

Mr Connolly said the victim, now 17, had three broken bones in her lumber spine. She spent two weeks in hospital and then needed follow-up treatment at a fracture clinic.

West had in November 2003 been cautioned for assaulting the same victim, causing her actual bodily harm by slapping and punching her in the face.

He also had a two actual bodily harm convictions. He swung a chain at a man, cutting his head in February last year and headbutted a PC called to the scene.

Oliver Saxby, defending, conceded that the latest incident was appalling. “It will have had and is likely to continue to have, serious effects, particularly emotional, on her,” he said.

Judge Michael Lawson, QC, told West: “It is a measure of the fear you instilled in her that day that she tried to escape via a balcony on the second floor.

“It is extremely fortunate for you and, perhaps more importantly, for her that no permanent injury or death ensued. You are very lucky that you are not facing a more serious charge.”

The judge said he had reduced the four-year sentence he was going to pass to three years. He added that there would be 18 months extended supervision at the end of the sentence as he posed a significant risk.