A JEALOUS lover who a judge branded "about the most dangerous type of person it is possible to imagine" has been jailed for life - but he could be out in less than ten years.

Leon Coombes kidnapped his former partner at gunpoint before stabbing her on a busy street when she tried to escape.

Judge Patrick Hooton gave Coombes a mandatory life sentence for possessing a firearm with a recommendation that he serve at least six years.

Coombes, 40, was also jailed for ten years for kidnap, four and a half years for wounding with intent and six months for assault. All sentences will run concurrently.

Judge Hooton said: "By your record and by what we have heard you did, you stand before me today as about the most dangerous type of person it is possible to imagine.

"You behaved in an atrocious way, beating her around the head with a firearm, dragging her to a car and causing her huge pain.

"She then escaped from you, and you ran after her, pinning her to the ground before stabbing her in a frenzied attack.

"She must have thought she was going to die as you stabbed her repeatedly.

"In my experience this is one of the worst cases of unlawful wounding I have ever heard, and you will serve a long sentence for what you did."

Coombes had burst into the house of his ex-girlfriend Lorraina Watson-Paul's sister in Holmes Close in Netley on January 19 after the couple's relationship had broken down.

Brandishing a gun and threatening to shoot her, Coombes then hit Miss Watson-Paul around the head with the weapon before forcing the mother-of-two to her own car, hitting her until she got in and then driving off.

When they stopped at a junction minutes later on Grange Road, Miss Watson-Paul managed to escape his clutches and ran to a passing car to get help.

Coombes caught up with her and on a Sunday afternoon in daylight and on a busy road, pushed her to the ground, sat astride her, and started repeatedly stabbing her with a 12-inch kitchen knife.

He then fled the scene, leaving passers-by to call for an ambulance to take 25-year-old Miss Watson-Paul to hospital where she was treated for a six-inch gash to her head and up to 19 stab wounds.

Yesterday at Winchester Crown Court, Coombes, of no fixed abode, was convicted by the jury on the final charge of possessing a firearm. He had earlier been found guilty of kidnapping, and had pleaded guilty before the trial started to two counts of unlawful wounding - in relation to the stabbing - and assault by beating, in another attack on Ms Watson-Paul just days before.

The jury of four women and eight men, however, cleared him of one further charge of wounding with intent.

Yesterday, as Miss Watson-Paul learnt of the fate of her former lover and father to one of her children, she said she was happy with the verdict, but just wished it had never happened in the first place.

She also admitted it was not the first time he had attacked her.

Miss Watson-Paul said: "It's great news to hear that he's got such a long sentence, but I wish none of it had ever happened.

"It's not just me he's damaged, but the children as well. How can his son ever trust him again when he's seen what his father is capable of doing?"

Coombes, who had previously received a six-year sentence for a similar attack on an ex-girlfriend, was banned from keeping animals for life in August 2001 after losing his temper with Miss Watson-Paul and taking it out on her new puppy. Neighbours reported seeing the painter and decorator of no fixed abode kicking the dog around the garden like a football, before punching the animal in the head 15 to 20 times.