A PLASTERER who viciously attacked a naked man he found in his ex-girlfriend's bed has been jailed for life.

Adrian Phillips, 22, told terrified Christopher Lewis "you know you are going to die really slowly" before going downstairs to get a knife.

He then returned to the bedroom, and slashed 46-year-old Mr Lewis twice across the face and once on the body.

Mr Richard Egleton, prosecuting, told Winchester Crown Court one wound on Mr Lewis's face ran from his ear to his nose.

The victim needed 15 stitches to wounds in his face as well as a number of tape stitches. He also had a wound on his arm where Phillips had bitten him.

Phillips, of Dryden Close, Popley, Basingstoke, admitted wounding Mr Lewis with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm.

He also pleaded guilty to assaulting his former girlfriend, 19-year-old Miss Claire Alexander.

Judge Patrick Hooton told Phillips he had to impose a mandatory life sentence as he had a previous conviction for causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Mr Egleton told the court that Phillips and Miss Alexander had a stormy on-off relationship.

On the night of the attack, Miss Alexander and Mr Lewis had been out for a drink then returned to her home.

There was a knock at the door and also something was thrown up at the bedroom window in the early hours.

At about 8am the following morning, Phillips (pictured) borrowed a cordless electric screwdriver from a friend and removed the panelling in the front door.

Inside the house, he immediately challenged Miss Alexander and smashed a glass table. Mr Egleton said Phillips then ran upstairs and found Mr Lewis lying naked on the bed.

He punched him in the face and went downstairs to get a knife from the kitchen.

After the attack on Mr Lewis, he went downstairs and saw Miss Alexander trying to telephone the police.

He struck her about the head three or four times and left. Later that day he gave himself up to the the police.

Miss Adrienne Knight, defending, urged the judge not to pass a life sentence.

She said: "There can be little more provocation than finding a naked man in bed with your girlfriend - in a bed that you occupied only a week earlier.

"That has to be substantial mitigation on his behalf. He effectively lost his reason when he walked in there and saw what had happened."

Judge Hooton also sentenced Phillips to six months' jail for the assault on Miss Alexander, to run concurrently.