A KNIFE attacker who inflicted life-threatening injuries on his victim has been jailed for two and a half years.

Preston Crown Court heard that Ray Marsden's victim was so terrified that he dived head first through a window at his ground floor flat.

Derek Bowes suffered a punctured lung following an argument connected with drugs. Marsden, 35, of Wellington Road, Blackburn, was convicted of unlawful wounding after the jury cleared him of attempted murder and an alternative allegation of wounding with intent.

The prosecution had claimed that he stabbed Mr Bowes in the side as he lay on the settee of his home in Cutler Close, Blackburn, on May 27 last year.

The man was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries - a deep wound to his side had punctured a lung.

It was alleged that Mr Bowes saw the defendant holding a steak knife dripping with blood and at some point he told the victim: "You are going to die in here."

But in his evidence to the jury Marsden alleged that Mr Bowes had launched at him with a barbecue fork, saying he was going to kill him.

He also claimed Mr Bowes started behaving "like a raving lunatic" and he had been in fear of his life. He had landed on the knife when he stumbled, but Mr Bowes later grabbed hold of it.

Mr Mark Stuart, defending, said that there was little history of violence on the defendant's record and drink had probably played a part.

In passing sentence, Judge Peter Openshaw QC said the defendant had probably been very angry on realising the danger Mr Bowes had put him in by allegedly getting drugs in his name.

He rejected the claim that Mr Bowes had taken up a barbecue fork, threatening him. The judge said: "If Mr Bowes used any force at all, which I doubt, he was merely acting in self defence."