A Latvian national twice convicted of murder in his native country has been jailed for nine years after he stabbed his former landlady in the thigh.

Peteris Vankovs attacked Tatjana Ivanova at her Murston home after he was said to have become "inflamed" by his girlfriend, Zanetta Tolkunova, staying with Ms Ivanova.

The couple had been lodging with Ms Ivanova in Wykeham Road, but Vankovs had been asked to leave.

Ms Ivanova was punched twice to her face by 52-year-old Vankovs, before he grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed her once in the right thigh.

He was alleged to have been shouting: "It doesn't matter who I will kill. I will burn your house down, kill you and your children."

A jury at Maidstone Crown Court convicted Vankovs, of no fixed address, of wounding Ms Ivanova with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. He was cleared of making a threat to kill.

"It doesn't matter who I will kill. I will burn your house down, kill you and your children..." - what Peteris Vankovs allegedly told victim

However, they were not told of his previous convictions as lack of information from the Latvian authorities prevented the prosecution from making a "bad character" application.

The lack of cooperation was branded "deplorable" by trial judge Recorder Cairns Nelson QC, and the sentencing hearing was further delayed when the information was eventually supplied - but had not been translated into English.

Finally, the court heard Vankovs was convicted of murder in 1996 and then again in 1997.

The first related to a drunken brawl with a friend, in which Vankovs stabbed him once in the neck and twice in the chest, before hitting him four times to the head with an axe. He was jailed for 12 years.

The second conviction related to Vankovs stabbing two men, one of whom later died, and he was jailed for 15 years.

The court was told, however, that both sentences were later reduced to nine-and-a-half years, although the prosecution said it could not "confirm or deny" the defence assertion this resulted from the murder convictions being reduced to manslaughter.

Passing sentence for the Murston attack, Recorder Nelson said he regarded Vankovs as a "dangerous offender" and had intended more serious harm to Ms Ivanova than was actually inflicted.

She had been crouching down at the time she was stabbed and the judge said it was clear from her evidence that Vankovs had actually aimed for her stomach.

Ms Ivanova suffered a deep wound to her thigh which required both internal and external stitches.

As part of an extended determinate sentence, Vankovs was jailed for nine years - of which he will have to serve two-thirds, less time already served on remand, before being considered for parole - and then a further five years on licence.

Vankovs attacked Ms Ivanova on November 8 last year. He was still outside the house when police arrived, alerted by Ms Ivanova's teenage daughter, but due to what were described in court as "communication problems", officers failed to connect Vankovs to the stabbing and he fled.

It was only after a chance sighting that evening by the teenager as she was being driven by police from visiting her mother in hospital that Vankovs was arrested.

He again tried to flee, but was found hiding underneath a parked car.

At the start of his trial, Vankovs admitted unlawful wounding on the basis he stabbed Ms Ivanova either by accident or by being reckless.

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