A KNIFEMAN who imprisoned two women, stabbed them and threatened to slit their throats has been given an extended nine-year jail sentence, writes Joanne Rowe.

Barry Jackson had been lodging at 21-year-old Lucy Cartwright’s flat on Richmond Drive in Leigh.

On the evening of October 8 last year, following an argument, Ms Cartwright told Jackson, 48, to leave.

But he grabbed her hair, dragged her into the bedroom where her friend Janet Sweeney, 48, had been sleeping and threw her on to the bed.

The women’s 90 minute ordeal began as Jackson told them to discard their phones.

Ms Cartwright tried to alert police but Jackson discovered the call, hit both women and told then they would not be leaving the flat alive.

He then picked up a folding knife from a bedside table and used it to repeatedly jab at his victims.

On Tuesday, Bolton Crown Court heard how he then barricaded them inside the bedroom, piling cushions against the door and using a drawstring from a sports bag to secure the window locks.

Miss Cartwright was stabbed twice in the right arm and Ms Sweeney was stabbed in the arm, leg and kidney area.

He also hit her over the head and bit her arm.

Jackson told the women they would not be released alive, adding: “I’m slitting your throats, I’ve nothing to lose.”

But the women saw their chance to escape when Jackson, who had been taking drugs, fell asleep by the bedroom door.

“Such was the fear on the part of the two females that they waited approximately half an hour before summoning up the courage to escape by unfastening the window locks and climbing out through the window,” said The Honorary Recorder of Bolton Judge Martin Walsh.

Judge Walsh told Jackson he is so dangerous he will not be eligible to apply for parole for six years and will be on licence for three years at the end of his sentence.

He told Jackson: “Fortunately, the injuries which each received were not severe but given your condition at the time of the attack, they could have been severe or even worse.”

Jackson, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to two counts of false imprisonment and two counts of causing grievous bodily harm.

The court heard that he has convictions for 90 previous offences, including several for violence.

Sentencing Jackson, Judge Walsh told him: “There is no clear and obvious explanations as to why the present offences were committed against the two terrified female victims, although it is apparent that you were heavily under the influence of drugs at the time.

“You maintain that you have no clear recollection of the commission of the offences.

“I am satisfied that you pose a serious risk of causing significant harm to others, particularly females.”