A BLACKBURN man who told his ex-lover: "You're going to die bitch -- I'm your worst nightmare" -- before repeatedly stabbing her in a jealous rage -- won a substantial cut in his prison sentence at London's Criminal Appeal Court yesterday.

Ian Peter Hornby, 53, stabbed the woman with a variety of knives, leaving her with a punctured lung, a severed jugular vein and a spleen so damaged it had to be surgically removed. Hornby, of St Silas Road, Blackburn, was sentenced to 12 years in jail after pleading guilty to attempted murder at Preston Crown Court last November.

But Judge Mark Dyer cut his term to 10 years, saying 12 was too long on a plea of guilty at the first opportunity. The judge told the court how Hornby had committed the frenzied attack on July 5 last year after he said he was told that his ex-partner had been "sleeping around."

Judge Dyer, sitting with Lord Justice Dyson and Mrs Justice Steel, quoted the trial judge, saying: "This was a case of the very worst type.

Her injuries were life-threatening and it was only the surgeons' skill which saved her life."

But Judge Dyer went on to say that, bearing in mind the "genuine regret" Hornby had shown and the "excellent references" which the court had seen regarding his character, "a sentence of 12 years was too long for a plea of guilty at the first opportunity.