12 years jail for paranoid knife attacker who tried 'to rip partner's face apart'

A father of two who stabbed his partner in an horrific attack before fleeing through a bedroom window believing she was dead has been jailed for 12 years.

Timothy Philpott plunged an eight-inch carving knife into Katrina Older’s chest so forcefully that the handle snapped off, a court heard.

She survived only through the intervention of neighbours who banged on the front door of their house in Cannock, alarmed at the sound of screaming and a child crying.

Judge Michael Chambers described it as a ‘sustained and horrific’ attack and said Philpott posed a high risk of harm to the public.

'You could have killed me baby'

Ms Older was feeding their four-week-old baby in the bedroom in the early hours of February 19 when she noticed his mobile phone flashing and realised he had been using a dating app, Stafford Crown Court heard.

Philpott woke and snatched the phone from her hand and rammed his fingers into her mouth from behind.

“She described it as if he was trying to rip her face apart,” said Mr Michael Aspinall, prosecuting.

The 26 year old managed to put the baby on the bed but the defendant got on top of her, the court heard.

As she screamed at him ‘you could have killed my baby’, he stopped and apologised, offering to leave the property.

Ms Older asked for her phone back so she could call the police, which led him to punch her in the face, causing her to hit her head on the bedroom wall and fall to the floor.

As she lay in the foetal position, Philpott kicked her in the face and stamped on her head.

Red mist

Once more he was overcome with remorse but a ‘red mist’ descended when Ms Older told him he would not see their children again.

He responded ‘I might as well kill you’ and after fetching a carving knife from the kitchen, he stabbed her in the stomach and threw her against the dressing table before attempting to slash her throat.

Philpott had escaped through their daughter’s bedroom window believing he had killed his partner, said Mr Aspinall. He was later arrested in the back garden of a nearby house.

His defence counsel said he had a mental disorder and had got himself into a ‘paranoid frenzy’ that weekend believing his partner was cheating on him.

The court heard that had attacked her several times before over unfounded fears of an affair.

The judge called it an ‘irony’ that this most serious assault had been triggered by his alleged cheating.

Scared and distrustful

Ms Older, who had to have the knife surgically removed after it punctured a lung, was in hospital for a week and a half.

Addressing the court in person she said the attack had left her scared to go out and distrustful of men.

The court heard that Philpott had five previous convictions for violence. He was given a restraining order, preventing him from having any contact with Ms Older.

At an earlier hearing the defendant, of Laburnum Avenue, Cannock, pleaded guilty to attempted murder.

Judge Chambers told him ‘If it had not been for the intervention of neighbours banging on the door, you would have killed her.’

He said he considered Philpott so dangerous that he extended his licence on release from prison for an additional four years.