A JILTED father who stabbed his pregnant former partner in the stomach has been jailed for nine years.

David Dent, 28, armed with two kitchen knives, attacked eight-weeks-pregnant Michelle Quayle from behind as she walked to work in St Clement's Road, Parkstone, on May 24.

Prosecutor Stewart Patterson said Dent knew his ex was pregnant with her new partner's child when he carried out the vicious attack, stabbing her in the abdomen and the arm.

He added that a doctor at Poole Hospital said one of the two stab wounds could have been life-threatening if it had not been treated, but both mother and child survived.

Dent, of Heyton Avenue, Grimsby, has a two-year-old daughter with Miss Quayle, 25.

The court heard that at the time of the offence, Dent was on bail, on the conditions that he reported to Grimsby police station and stay away from Dorset.

But Mr Patterson said the defendant had paid a youth in Grimsby £50 a week, for a month, to impersonate him at Grimsby police station while he was in Poole.

Alisdair Williamson, defending, said it was Dent's "most sincere wish" to rot in prison, and that he had no wish to live after he was told in February that he could no longer see his daughter.

He added that his client, who pleaded guilty to wounding Miss Quayle and perverting the course of justice, initially denied the attack, but now accepted what he did and wanted to apologise to his victim.

Judge Samuel Wiggs told Dent he showed very little remorse for the "extremely serious" crime.

"Life threatening injuries caused with a knife, wherever they take place - and in this case they took place in the street - are frightening in the extreme to the person who suffered the injury," he said.

He sentenced him to eight years for grievous bodily harm with intent and a further year, to be served consecutively, for perverting the course of justice.

Judge Wiggs also ordered that two counts of burglary of Miss Quayle's house in February and April, which Dent denies, lie on the court file.

Both Miss Quayle and the police officer in charge of the case, Detective Sergeant David James, welcomed the judge's decision.

DS James said: "I am very pleased with the sentence. It obviously reflects the serious nature of the offence."

Dent is still waiting for further charges to be dealt with at magistrates' court.

First published: September 11