Father And Son Blackmail Duo Jailed For £35,000 Sex Pic Plot

A father and son, who blackmailed a company boss with compromising pictures of his married business colleague being straddled by a half-naked woman in a Dubai hotel room after a £180 million per month oil deal turned sour have each been jailed for eighteen months.

They demanded £35,000 to prevent the images being plastered all over the internet - damaging the international company's reputation - and also shown to the subject's wife.

Karim Ashikali, 57, and Mohamedraza Ashikali, 26, both of Dean Drive, Stanmore claimed the blackmail complaint was invented to cut them out of the lucrative oil deal and maintained Mohamedraza - known as Mo - is owed £35,000 in wages by the company.

They were both found guilty by an Isleworth Crown Court jury to making an unwarranted demand, with menaces, against the businessman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, between November 6 and November 20, last year.

The businessman and the Ashikali's had a meeting at the company's HQ in South Kensington on November 6 after a fruitless investment trip by both defendant's to Dubai resulted in Mohamedraza (pic.top) parting company with the consulting firm.

The company boss's colleague - identified as Mr. B - was photographed stripped to the waist in a Dubai hotel room with a half-naked mystery woman on top of him, wearing only a bra and knickers.

"When they came in Mo held his phone up and showed me the pictures.

"They were of Mr. B with a woman sitting astride him, taken from two different angles," explained the businessman. "The only reason the Ashikali's came to me was to discredit him."

Mohamedraza also threatened to tell Mr. B's wife her husband was enjoying a fling with an attractive young female member of staff at the company, who he also twice bedded, and had a recording of the employee confirming the affair.

"He said he was going to post the images on the internet.

"He was never owed any outstanding salary. That is money he wanted to keep quiet, to not tell Mr. B's wife."

The Ashikali's failed to find investors for the company while in Dubai, but Karim (pic.bottom) claimed the Saudi Arabian consul-general could allocate them three million barrels of oil a month - a deal that would generate huge profits.

However, the businessman says the deal was flawed and Mr. B agreed with him, denying there was any motivation to "cut out" the Ashikali's.

With the consul-general demanding nine-tenths of the commission the businessman told the court: "It would have been illegal. Totally illegal."

He also told the court his company "lost complete faith" in the Ashikali's efforts to source investment in the middle-east.

"Some of those investors were not investors at all. They were trying to take our money."

The businessman said he reported the Ashikali's after cash demands were made following the meeting when the compromising pictures were revealed.

"We discussed it after receiving an email saying Karim wanted money and then we went to the police. We took it as a demand."

He said Karim emailed him claiming time was running out to stop his son going public, warning: 'I don't think I can hold him (Mo) off much longer!!'

Secretive Benefit Cheat Kept Assets Under Wraps

A benefit cheat, accused of keeping his property ownership and bulging bank accounts a secret during a £22,000 fraud, has been sentenced.

Narinder Dosanjh, 52, of Florence Road, Sandwell, West Midlands received housing benefit and council tax benefit from the London Borough of Southwark.

At Woolwich Crown Court he received a nine month prison sentence, suspended for fifteen months, was ordered to perform 240 hours community service work and pay £3,000 costs.

He was originally charged with multiple counts of dishonestly making a false statement to obtain benefits on dates between December 1, 2008 and February 27, 2012.

The charges involved failing to disclose his ownership of a property in Rosefield Road, Smethwick and a balance in his Yorkshire Building Society account that reached £49,198 and a Barclays Bank account that totalled £6,982.

Voyeuristic Paedo Abused Girls And Spied On Couple With Secret Hidden Camera

A voyeuristic paedophile, who secretly filmed a couple in his spare bedroom, also raped a four year-old girl twenty-seven years ago before subjecting her and another girl to further sexual assaults, a court heard.

Primary school caretaker Tony Cunningham, 54, of Norbury Avenue, Thornton Heath denies all the charges, claiming he is a victim of a conspiracy to frame him.

Prosecutor Mr. Tim Forster told the Croydon Crown Court jury: “When she was about four years-old she remembers the defendant getting into bed next to her, moving her legs aside and pushing his penis into her.

“She remembers it hurt and that the following morning she was sore and she has that firmly in her mind.”

Cunningham has pleaded not guilty to raping the four year-old between December 5, 1985 and December 4, 1986 and two separate counts of indecently assaulting her when she was aged either six or seven or eight or nine years-old.

He has also pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexually assaulting a girl in Skipsea, Yorkshire between October 18, 2006 and October 18, 2007, plus two alternative counts relating to the same incidents.

Cunningham also denies voyeurism on March 24, 2005 in that he recorded the Skipsea girl's parents for his own sexual gratification at his former home in Woodside Road, South Norwood.

The jury were told the rape complainant recalled two other incidents when she was alone with Cunningham, the first when he was driving her in his car when she was aged six to seven years old.

“He took her hand and placed it on his groin,” explained Mr. Forster.

The next incident occurred when she was eight or nine years old.

“She was only wearing a dressing gown and the defendant pulled her onto the couch so she was lying on top of him and she could feel his erect penis between her legs and he began to rub against her.”

Cunningham was a guest at a couple's home in Skipsea, where he molested their daughter when she was twelve or thirteen years old, the jury were told.

Mr. Tim Forster explained that the Skipsea complainant, now aged 19, confided in a friend just before Christmas, last year that she had been touched by Cunningham

“She remembered that five years ago when the defendant came to stay with her family that while she was watching television Mr. Cunningham pulled a blanket over her and put his hand on her hand and moved it towards his groin.

“Two or three months later she was taking laundry upstairs when Mr. Cunningham asked her if she wanted a cuddle.

“He pulled her on top of him on to the bed and she could feel him thrusting between her legs with his erect penis.”

After the allegations were made Cunningham was asked to leave the matrimonial home by his wife, who then found two VHS cassettes among his belongings.

“She was absolutely shocked to find it was rather grainy footage of their spare room and the couple in bed, or undressing or getting up in the morning with particular emphasis on the wife.

“There was some sexual activity and footage of the wife without any clothing and the husband lying naked on the bed,” explained Mr. Forster.

“The footage had been recorded with a concealed camera and edited down to the best bits, into a compilation.”

The police were called and it was obvious the camera had been hidden inside an air vent cavity, which had been adjusted to allow images to be recorded, the jury were told.

“Mr. Cunningham is obsessed with cameras and he installed a CCTV system in the house,” added Mr. Forster.

Among some of Cunningham's pornographic dvd's his wife also found a computer disc that contained four images of the Skipsea girl.

“They show her in a paddling pool and they include two close-ups of her crotch.

“Mr. Cunningham was the gifted and keen photographer in the house. Does it reveal how his mind was working?

“They are a window into his mind,” the prosecutor added. “If you have any doubt about what the Crown says happened in Yorkshire these pictures will remove that doubt.”

Trial continues...........

Blocked Lavvy Causes Crown Court Evacuation

London's Southwark Crown Court had to be evacuated early this afternoon after blocked toilet caused hundreds of gallons of water to pour through the centre of the busy building.

Just after noon water began flooding the area just outside Court One on the second floor, pouring through ceiling tiles and light fittings.

A court security spokesman confirmed: "Water was pouring in on the fifth floor and flooding the courtrooms on the floors below."

One of the ushers said: "I knew something was not right when I saw water pouring through where the lifts are on the fifth floor."

The jury dining room on the first floor also experienced flooding from above.

A decision was quickly made to evacuate the thirty year-old building cancelling cases in fifteen courtrooms and turning lawyers, judges, witnesses, defendants, court staff and visitors out onto the street.

"Mean And Greedy" Newsagent's Oyster Card Rip-Off

An Oyster-approved newsagent ripped-off London commuters during a "mean and greedy fraud" which netted him £6,000 by stealing money from their top-up cards.

Mariathas Thevathas, 54, docked a few pounds from thousands of transactions during an eighteen-month spell, which left public transport users with less money on their Oyster cards than they had paid for.

The Sri Lankan asylum seeker, who ran Crystal Newsagents, South Norwood Hill, All Saints, Upper Norwood was sentenced yesterday to ten months imprisonment, suspended for two years, and ordered to perform 150 hours community service.

Oyster users may be surprised to learn that despite being issued with a receipt confirming the credit they have paid for dishonest agents can void the transaction for a lower amount and pocket the difference.

Transport for London (tfl) fraud investigators admit there is nothing to stop the practice, but claim an agent who voids top-ups on a regular basis will be immediately flagged and come under scrutiny.

"The people swindled are the poor customers going into his shop, thinking they have a valid Oyster, and he's taken all the money. There's nothing on it," said Croydon Crown Court Judge Nicholas Ainley.

"It seems to me this is a confidence fraud involving multiple transactions."

The judge told first-time offender Thevathas: "This was a mean and greedy fraud. I don't care what your financial difficulties were, I am sure the financial difficulties of your customers were just as bad.

"You have done this in a very large number of occasions. A straightforward confidence fraud on members of the public."

Prosecutor Mr. Michael Collis told the court tfl noticed a large number of Oyster top-ups were being voided at Thevathas's business.

"Three separate frauds were in progress," he explained. "The first involved a customer paying for a top-up before it was very quickly voided and their Oyster card then topped-up with a lower value.

"The second type of fraud was topping-up in a lower amount than requested, then topping-up a second time to reach the correct amount before voiding the second amount entirely.

"The third type was to top-up the card with the correct amount and simply voiding it in it's entirety.

"The customers would have a receipt with the correct amount they had paid, but that amount was not credited to the card."

The cast majority of Thevathas's customers used unregistered Oyster cards and tfl only traced six customers who were defrauded.

Police raided the newsagent's on June 25, last year.

"They found numerous voided receipts around the till, in the bin behind the counter and in a black rubbish bag in the store room."

Thevathas protested his innocence until the first day of his trial. "He said they were voided because the customers had changed their minds and it was all done at their request.

"However, police and tfl noticed all the Oyster equipment was kept out of the view of the customers," added Mr. Collis.

Thevathas's lawyer Mr. Kviraj Choolun told the court his client succumbed to "financial pressures" as his family's only breadwinner and had a£17,000 credit card debt and £200,000 mortgage.

The shop passed into new ownership in March and the defendant is now a £600 per month store assistant supported by working tax credits and child benefit.

Thevathas has suggested compensation to tfl should come out of the £10,000 deposit he paid them for the Oyster equipment.

Thevathas, of Merchiston Road, Catford  pleaded guilty to one count of fraud against Transport for London between December 31, 2010 and June 26, last year.

Accused Financial Advisor Told Police A Bloodstained Mystery Man Killed His Millionaire Client

A Nottingham financial advisor, accused of battering a Mayfair millionaire to death after stealing £343,000 from him, told police he was confronted by a bloodstained mystery man outside the victim's apartment on the day of the murder, a jury heard today.

David Jeffs, 36, (pic.bottom) of Larch Close, Arnold denies murdering wealthy socialite Roberto Troyan, 63, who suffered fatal head injuries at his home in Mount Street on March 8.

Jeffs was in custody at HMP Belmarsh, charged with the murder, when he was questioned on June 4 about defrauding Mr. Troyan, (pic.top) who had received a large inheritance from his late civil partner, interior designer Anthony Feldman.

Croydon Crown Court heard Jeffs suddenly changed the subject and told police: "I was accosted by somebody coming from his flat, a man around my height, perhaps a bit heavier.

"He pushed me away and against the lift and told me it was none of my business and to go away.

"He had water splashed on him and blood around his wrists……I removed a speck mark from my face, a combination of water and blood."

Jeffs claims his clean-up continued in the lift and afterwards he twice telephoned Mr. Troyan "to see if he was okay."

The prosecution insist this account was fabricated by the defendant to explain away forensic evidence in the case.

During the same interview Jeffs told police that as well as acting as Mr. Troyan's financial advisor he was also his £1,000 per week 'financial concierge' - which would have resulted in additional earnings of £243,000.

"I did a lot of work for Roberto as a financial concierge, paying debts, his storage bill, negotiating, dealing with disagreements with landlords and letting agents, dealing with damage to rented property, unpaid rents and bailiffs," Jeffs told police.

"It was just a verbal contract and he back-dated it to two-thousand and eight," added the defendant, agreeing the wages were paid by cheque and he did not report the extra earnings to the taxman.

"Roberto was quite a difficult character to take care of his finances and would build up bills and would ignore the first and second demands."

Jeffs said he would meet Mr. Troyan three times a week and they would go through old bills together and would chat on the phone almost daily.

Jeffs has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr. Troyan on March 8 and defrauding him between March 1, 2010 and December 2, last year.

He was employed by London and Weybridge, Surrey-based HFM Columbus, a partnership of financial and wealth management firms and invested £1.2 million for Mr. Troyan in an off-shore bank.

However, the jury were told he abused his client's trust, buying himself two Lotus sports cars, blowing £19,500 in one night at lap dancing club Spearmint Rhino and treating himself to "expensive" holidays in the USA, Mauritius and Ibiza.

There were also VIP rugby and polo events, stays at expensive hotels, meals at top restaurants, a £1150 night at celebrity West End club Chinawhite and evidence of cocaine and ecstasy use.  

Mr. Troyan was one half of the first-ever civil partnership in the UK and Mr. Feldman's clients included Princess Michael of Kent and Jonathan Aitken.

He was found on his blood-splattered kitchen floor by his cleaner and had suffered multiple skull fractures, a fractured jaw, cheek and eye-socket and had inhaled blood into his airways.

The trial continues………….

Opportunist Preyed On Drunken Woman

A sexual predator, who pushed a drunken woman over a garden wall after she was refused service in a pub and assaulted her, has been jailed for seven years.

Morgan Towner, 37, (pictured) of Long Lane, Addiscombe took the victim – aged in her 50's – from his local Claret pub at 11.00pm on February 9, last year and walked her 300 yards down the road.

Her cries of: “No. Don't do it,” were heard by a local resident, who raised the alarm and police found Towner on top of the woman, pinning her to the ground.

He was convicted by a Croydon Crown Court jury of sexual assault by digital penetration and was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life.

Mental Health Centre Worker Charged With Helping Murderer Escape

An employee at a secure mental health centre has been charged with helping a dangerous murderer – who is still on the run – escape from the east London facility.

Police are still hunting Lerone Michael Boye, 27, (pictured) who was sentenced in December, last year to life imprisonment – with a 28 year minimum – for stabbing a teenager to death.

He absconded from the John Howard Centre, Kenworthy Road, Homerton at 2.00pm on October 16.

Boye murdered 17 year-old Kelvin Chibueze, who was chased by a gang of men near an Ilford party on August 15, 2011.

Dean Ablakwa, 29, who is a member of staff at the John Howard Centre, has been charged with conspiracy to assist an offender escape from lawful custody and will appear at Snaresbrook Crown Court on November 7.

Police continue to appeal for information that will result in the capture of Boye, who is described as a black man, approximately 5ft 10ins tall with a slim build and short black hair.

He has a scar on his right cheek, a goatee beard and a gold tooth in his upper row of teeth.



He was last seen wearing grey jogging bottoms and grey/blue sweatshirt with a grey vest over the top and is known to have links to the Ilford area.



The public are advised not to approach Boye but call 999 if seen.



Anyone with any information about Boye's whereabouts can also call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. 

Bank Blag Bunglers: Three Stooges Banged Up

Three bungling bank blaggers, who snatched an empty cash box from a security guard and were captured after crashing their getaway car, have been locked-up.

Chanel Riscosa, 30, (pic.top), Nuaka Dimena, 29, (pic.mid.) and Basana Kimbembi, 31, (pic.bottom) thought they were going to be in the money after robbing a delivery at Barclays Bank, Beehive Lane, Gants Hill, Essex.

Getaway driver Riscosa, of Lyndhurst Road, Wood Green, was sentenced to four years and five months imprisonment and disqualified from driving for three years.

Dimena received three years and nine months and Kimbembi received three years.

The trio pleaded guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court to committing the robbery on December 21, last year and Riscosa also admitted driving dangerously.

Dimena and Kimbembi snatched the empty cash box from an armoured car security guard and jumped into a red Peugeot, driven by Riscosa, that was waiting in Tilotson Road.

The car was spotted a short time later by police in Redbridge Lane East and a pursuit ensued.



At the Charlie Brown Roundabout the suspects' car collided with two other vehicles and Dimena and Kimbembi – who suffered a broken leg in the crash - were arrested at the scene.

Riscosa ran from the car and was chased on foot before jumping over a wall.

The area was contained and police dogs subsequently found him hiding in a shed in the grounds of a school.



The cash box was recovered from the back seat of the car, hidden in a multicoloured laundry bag and next to a second bag containing a blow torch and screwdriver.



Sex Offender Hunted

A convicted sex offender is being hunted by police after flouting a court order and going AWOL.

The Metropolitan Police's Jigsaw Unit in Hillingdon, west London are keen to trace Jason Elton John Waller, 37, (pictured) – aka John Collier – who was last seen in their borough in March.

He is required under a Sexual Offences Act order to notify police weekly as an offender registered as 'no fixed abode' and suspected of sleeping rough.

Waller is described as white, of heavy build, 5ft 8" tall with light blue eyes.

He has a tattoo of a scroll on his left arm with the word "Joanne".



He is known to ride a push bike and to travel around the U.K and Ireland.



Anyone who has seen Waller or knows of his whereabouts, or has any information regarding Waller is asked to contact the Jigsaw Unit at Hillingdon Borough on 020 8246 1719. 

Investigators 'Blagged' Personal Info Hunting Debtors

L - Barry Spencer  R - Adrian Stanton 

The bosses of a private investigation company and their staff illegally 'blagged' sensitive information from utility companies, banks and other institutions on 1,900 occasions in just over a year, a jury were told today.

While hunting people who owed unpaid bills, community charges and other debts sensitive, personal information was extracted during a series of telephone calls from ICU Investigations Ltd on behalf of their 330 clients.

The company's director and sole shareholder Barry Spencer, 41, of Hook Common, Hook, Hampshire and former company secretary Adrian Stanton, 40, of Vicarage Road, Sunbury-on-Thames deny conspiring to illegally obtain information.

The company, of Legacy Centre, Hanworth Trading Estate, Hampton Road West, Feltham also deny the same summons brought under the Data Protection Act.

Prosecutor Mr. Ben Summers told the Isleworth Crown Court jury: "They would trick the people they were calling at utility companies and the television licensing authority etc into disclosing information that involved personal data.

"That information would be used to complete reports on people they were trying to trace and then sent to ICU's clients.

"This case is about blagging, getting information about people by deceiving others and both defendants and ICU were involved in this practise.

"All three agreed to systematically commit offences under the Data Protection Act as part of the business they provided as a tracing agent."

Companies contacted for information include Vision Express; npower; E.ON;  British Gas as well as GP surgeries.

ICU clients include the Leeds Building Society; Brighton and Hove City Council and Mint Credit.

"During the period somewhere in the order of nineteen hundred separate offences were committed with blagging phone calls being made," explained Mr. Summer.

"Personal details were blagged out of the people who were contacted."

Five members of staff have already admitted the conspiracy and will be sentenced after the trial.

A favourite method employed was to call an organisation, posing as the person they were trying to trace, and confirm details such as addresses and contact numbers.

"The defendants were involved in agreeing these calls should be made and through them the company is also responsible.

"They ran and administered the company and its day to day operation.

"Telephone calls were routinely made that did breach the Data Protection Act because they were blagging information from people by misrepresenting who they were and what they were after."

ICU clients include law firms, insurance firms and local authorities chasing bad debts.

"It is inconceivable the offences could have been committed without Mr. Spencer and Mr. Stanton knowing what was going on," added Mr. Summers.

They have pleaded not guilty, along with the company, to conspiring to obtain data, without consent, between April 1, 2009 and May 13, 2010.

The trial is expected to last three weeks………..  

Father And Son Accused Of Blackmailing Businessman With Raunchy Pics

A father and son blackmailed a company boss with compromising pictures of his married business colleague being straddled by a half-naked woman in a Dubai hotel room after a £180 million per month oil deal turned sour, a court heard today.

They demanded £35,000 to prevent the images being plastered all over the internet - damaging the international company's reputation - and shown to the subject's wife the Isleworth Crown Court jury were told.

Karim Ashikali, 57, (pic.bottom) and Mohamedraza Ashikali, 26, (pic.top) both of Dean Drive, Stanmore claim the blackmail complaint was invented to cut them out of the lucrative oil deal and maintain Mohamedraza - known as Mo - is owed £35,000 in wages by the company.

They have pleaded not guilty to making an unwarranted demand, with menaces, against the businessman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, between November 6 and November 20, last year.

The businessman and the Ashikali's had a meeting at the company's HQ in South Kensington on November 6 after a fruitless investment trip by both defendant's to Dubai resulted in Mohamedraza parting company with the consulting firm.

The jury heard the company boss's colleague - identified as Mr. B - was photographed stripped to the waist in a Dubai hotel room with a half-naked mystery woman on top of him, wearing only a bra and knickers.

"When they came in Mo held his phone up and showed me the pictures.

"They were of Mr. B with a woman sitting astride him, taken from two different angles," explained the businessman. "The only reason the Ashikali's came to me was to discredit him."

Mohamedraza also allegedly threatened to tell Mr. B's wife her husband was enjoying a fling with an attractive young female member of staff at the company and had a recording of the employee confirming the affair.

"He said he was going to post the images on the internet.

"He was never owed any outstanding salary. That is money he wanted to keep quiet, to not tell Mr. B's wife."

The Ashikali's failed to find investors for the company while in Dubai, but Karim claimed the Saudi Arabian consul-general could allocate them three million barrels of oil a month - a deal that would generate huge profits.

However, the businessman says the deal was flawed and Mr. B agreed with him, denying there was any motivation to "cut out" the Ashikali's.

With the consul-general demanding nine-tenths of the commission the businessman told the court: "It would have been illegal. Totally illegal."

He also told the court his company "lost complete faith" in the Ashikali's efforts to source investment in the middle-east.

"Some of those investors were not investors at all. They were trying to take our money."

The businessman said he reported the Ashikali's after cash demands were made following the meeting when the compromising pictures were revealed.

"We discussed it after receiving an email saying Karim wanted money and then we went to the police. We took it as a demand."

He said Karim emailed him claiming time was running out to stop his son going public, warning: 'I don't think I can hold him (Mo) off much longer!!'

The trial continues………

Benefit Cheat Ordered To Repay Cash

A benefit cheat, who ripped-off taxpayers, has been ordered by a court to repay the cash he swindled or do time behind bars.

Laurance Harris, 60, (pictured) returned to Isleworth Crown Court for Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings.

The post-sentence hearing was necessary to calculate the defendant's criminal benefit and identify any assets he has, which can be used to pay compensation.

The court ruled Harris must pay £47,000 compensation within six months or serve twelve months imprisonment in default.

Suburban Bloodbath: Ex-Boyfriend Strangles Schoolteacher After Stabbing Her Parents

A "mild-mannered" primary school assistant, who bought three kitchen knives and stabbed his ex-girlfriend's parents  so he could strangle their daughter during a horrific suburban nightmare has been jailed for sixteen years.

Luke Nicholson, 29, (pic.top) who had never been in trouble with the police before, stabbed his former girlfriend's father - severing an artery - on the doorstep of the family's home, slashed the mother and finally throttled ex Cheryl Slim, 30, in the back garden.

Schoolteacher Cheryl, (pic.bottom l.) who had leapt from an upstairs bathroom window, played dead and Nicholson only released his grip and fled when the next-door neighbour tried to smash through the garden fence to stop him.

Nicholson, of Athill Court, St. Johns Road, Sevenoaks, who assisted primary school children with special needs, pleaded guilty to three counts of grievous bodily harm, with intent, in relation to Robert Slim, 59, (pic.bottom r.) Annette Slim, 55, and Cheryl on January 24.

A charge of attempting to murder Cheryl was dropped by the prosecution, who found the defendant had attempted to make Facebook contact with his ex of five years, and made other internet searches for her in the period before the attack.

Croydon Crown Court was told the defendant rode his moped twenty miles in the snow, buying the knives from Tesco's on the way, and ended up outside 15 Ernest Grove, Elmers End, Beckenham - the Slim's family home, where he had once spent an enjoyable Christmas years before.

Mr. Slim described Nicholson as having a "vacant emotionless expression" when he answered the door to him and was stabbed in the upper arm without warning and sustained further injuries as they fought in the hallway.

Mrs Slim emerged from the living-room, where the couple had been watching television, and smashed Nicholson over the head with a plant pot several times without effect.

"He turned his attention to Mrs Slim and she tried to grab the knife from his hand," explained prosecutor Mr. Patrick Moran. "In the ensuing struggle the defendant lashed out at her several times with the knife."

She suffered severed tendons to one of her hands as she successfully prized the knife from Nicholson, who then began hunting the house for Cheryl, leaving a trail of bloody footprints up to the bathroom, where she had locked herself in.

"Fearing that someone would break through the bathroom door to find her she opened the bathroom window and climbed out of it," added Mr. Moran.

"The window overlooked the back garden and it was into that garden Miss Slim fell as she tried to lower herself from the edge.

"No sooner had she got up than the defendant tackled her back to the ground and smashed a hard object against her head - possibly a garden ornament.

"The defendant then dragged Miss Slim down to the end of the garden, further from her parents, who had no idea that the defendant had her, quite literally, in his grip.

"She struggled on the ground underneath the defendant as he gripped her neck and it was only at that stage that she believed she recognised her attacker as a former boyfriend.

"She was struggling to breathe as she felt her windpipe being crushed and sought to defend herself by clawing at the defendant's face.

"Miss Slim could do little more to defend herself, as she felt as if she was losing consciousness, and decided to stop struggling and lie still."

After the neighbour disturbed the heavily bloodstained Nicholson he made his way back through the blood-splattered house, past Mr. Slim, who had collapsed on the kitchen floor from excessive bleeding, and out the front door.

Police stopped him a few street away and an obviously drunken Nicholson said: "I don't know what you are talking about," with officers describing him as being in an "agitated" state.

Miss Charlotte Newell, defending, said: "What led this mild-mannered, gentle young man to behave this way may never be clear.

"His family are devastated by the havoc that has been wreaked. His actions do not square with the young man the family raised."

The court heard Nicholson attended London Metropolitan University, which recently awarded him a diploma and Miss Newell added: "His true nature was not on display that evening.

"His relationship with Miss Slim did not end well, but he did not bear her any ill will and even though she had been on his mind this exploded from nothing. There is no real grudge against the Slim's."

Judge Stephen Waller heard Nicholas had abused alcohol and cannabis throughout his adult life and announced: "I think he poses a risk to any person with whom he has a grievance while under the influence of drink and drugs.

"There was carnage in the hallway of that suburban house," he added. "This was a pre-meditated sustained attack on three defenceless people in their own home.

"They will find it difficult, if ever, to recover from such a horrifying experience.

"There is nothing in your background that gives any clue as to why you acted in that dreadful fashion that night."

The probation service found there was a "high likelihood" that Nicholson would re-offend and a restraining order was made to protect the Slim family once he is paroled.

Judge Waller told Nicholson he would have to serve at least two-thirds of the sentence and would be subjected to an extended licence period of an additional five years.