A drug addict who slit the throat of a man during a sex session and then left him for dead has been jailed for 12 years.

Shane Dunn was cleared of attempting to murder 55-year-old Ian Garrod, but convicted of wounding with intent.

The 25-year-old, of Victoria Road, Golden Green, Tunbridge Wells, denied both charges.

A judge told him he had only just decided not to find him dangerous in legal terms and impose an extended sentence.

Judge Jeremy Carey said it was only by the skill of a surgeon at Medway Maritime Hospital that the victim’s life was saved.

Using the name Gypsy Boy, Dunn went to the victim’s home in the Medway/Swale area on September 8 last year after contacting him on a gay dating app called Grindr.

Prosecutor Deborah Charles said Mr Garrod, who runs training courses for scientists, used the site to contact potential sexual partners.

They both took drugs. Mr Garrod regularly used a drug called Tina - a crystal meth - for sexual encounters.

They did not have full sex but Dunn stayed into the early hours of the next day. At one point, he went to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

When he returned he sat next to Mr Garrod on the bed.

“Mr Garrod felt as if someone had slapped him in the neck,” Miss Charles told a jury at Maidstone Crown Court. “He put his hand up to his neck and realised it was covered in blood.

“He never saw the weapon coming towards him. It happened too quickly.”

Dunn had taken a knife from a block in the kitchen and slashed Mr Garrod’s neck, severing his thyroid gland and anterior jugular vein.

“Mr Garrod was begging him to call an ambulance,” said Miss Charles. “Mr Dunn pretended to do just that.”

He told the victim an ambulance was on the way but it did not arrive. He took Mr Garrod’s wallet, iPhone, iPad and jewellery and left him left him lying naked in his bed bleeding heavily.

"Mr Garrod felt as if someone had slapped him in the neck... He put his hand up to his neck and realised it was covered in blood..." - Prosecutor Deborah Charles

Mr Garrod said he feared he would die but his housemate later returned from holiday and called the emergency services.

Dunn, who had previously been to Mr Garrod’s home with his partner for a sex session, said in evidence he had “a complete memory blank” after being injected with a drug he thought was Miaow Miaow, the stimulant drug Mephedrone.

He went to see Mr Garrod, he said, because he knew he could get drugs and sex.

“At some point I had a glass of water and a couple of cigarettes,” her continued. “He tied my arm with an elastic thing he had and waited for my vein to come up, and he injected.

“I immediately felt really strange, like I wanted to be sick and like I don’t know what I was doing. The last thing I remember him saying to me was: “Just sit up straight and don’t panic.’

“The next thing I remember is waking up in my bed at about 4pm. I don’t remember how I got home.”

Asked if he caused the wound, he replied: “I can’t answer that.” He agreed it “raised the possibility” it was him.

Judge Carey said Dunn was convicted “on the clearest evidence” of the wounding charge.

“You asserted you effectively were not the person who stabbed Ian Garrod and the jury found on the evidence you were, and you intended to cause him really serious harm,” he said.

“It was hardly surprising since you cut his throat to a depth of 6cm. Only by the skill of a surgeon at Medway Maritime Hospital the flow of the blood was clipped and stemmed.

“Otherwise, you would have been convicted of murder.”

There were “inevitable uncertainties” about what happened that night.

“I am quite sure you did not attend there with the intention of committing acts of violence,” he continued. “I am quite sure something happened that night that caused you to lose it.

“You say you don’t remember. I don’t know if you do or not. You are not a man prone to extreme violence.

"Had it not been for the skill of the surgeons who treated Shane Dunn’s victim, it is almost certain he would have lost his life following this vicious and wholly unprovoked attack..." - Det Con Clive Fowler

“I think by a combination of a Class A drug you used that night and the revelation of something possibly to do with HIV on the part of Mr Garrod you lost it.

“You got a knife from the block and went upstairs and, cool as a cucumber, you slit his throat. Anyone listening to this must realise how serious this offending is."

“The sentence must be a heavy one. You made your position worse. You pretended to call and ambulance and stole items from him.

“It was a particularly callous thing to do to a man who lying bleeding towards fatality.”

Judge Carey added: “I am not going to make any comment about Grindr - about people who are willing to take in others they hardly know and have relations with them when drugs have been smoked.

“It doesn’t assist anyone but it is a pretty shocking state of affairs.”

After the sentencing, Detective Constable Clive Fowler said: "Had it not been for the skill of the surgeons who treated Shane Dunn’s victim, it is almost certain he would have lost his life following this vicious and wholly unprovoked attack.

"We may never know what was going through Dunn’s head when he not only slashed a man’s throat, but then chose to further his suffering by only pretending to make a telephone call to the emergency services and giving the victim hope. His actions were cold and callous to say the least.

"While such incidents are extremely rare, this case should act as a warning to all of the risks associated with meeting strangers over the internet."