Amateur dancer Shane Coffey, 20, flew 3,200 miles from his home near Boston to try and murder Farha Dowlut, 18, with a hunting knife after she ended their four year online relationship.

He was wearing a dark top in Guildford Crown Court today and remained expressionless as he was given a life sentence and told he would serve at least eight-and-a-half years in prison.

Coffey and the girl, who is now 19, had become friends through playing Xbox games including online fantasy game Runescape since she was 13 or 14 staying in touch with text messages and Whats App.

They had never met but were "flirty". 

When Miss Dowlut ended their virtual relationship after he placed Trojan horse software on her computer to spy on her and her private conversations with other men, he demanded back an Xbox he had sent her at Christmas and started harassing her.

They had a "massive argument" in around February or March and she blocked him on Whatsapp and asked him never to contact her again.

Coffey traced her to Hook Road in Epsom using Google Maps, applied for a passport, and flew from Boston to Heathrow on April 16. She had told him where she lived so they could exchange Christmas presents.

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Guildford Crown Court heard today that he had smuggled a Schrade hunting knife into the country as part of a murder kit. He had also done online searches of what life might be like in prison, on Epsom local policing, and had instructions of how to hack into Miss Dowlut's compute. 

Judge Recorder Christopher Critchlow said: "You have demonstrated strong manipulative and predatory traits when you have felt you have been mistreated by a female.

"You told the probation officer you felt jealous and paranoid when she finished the contact with you.

"By way of revenge you then meticulously planned to kill her.

"It is difficult to imagine a more nightmarish situation for a young female asleep in her own bedroom and woken to find herself being attacked by a man intent on killing her."

He praised her brother Mohammad's courage saying: "It may have been a natural response from a brother but it was courageous given he was naked and found himself facing you with a large knife.

"He didn't back off and he saved his sister's life."

Coffey had checked into a hotel on April 17 before heading to the Dowlut's semi-detached family home shortly after 3am on Good Friday where he hid in the garden for an hour before using a brick to smash her window and confronted her in her bedroom.

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Prosecutor Gino Connor said: "When she heard the smash she started to scream as she became aware of a dark figure on top of her."

As she desperately tried to fight him off, her brother Mohammad, 22 at the time, heard screams and ran into the room naked. 

He saw Coffey straddling his sister, "slashing with a knife" and making "downward stabbing motions".

Mr Connor said "brave and fearless" Mohammad tried to pull Coffey off. He was repeatedly stabbed in the head, leg and hand during their struggle.

He said: "His actions saved her life."

Their father heard his son shouting that they were being murdered and stabbed and came into his daughter's bedroom. He grabbed Coffey and dragged him out of the blood-soaked room.                

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His strength fading fast, the brother fetched a metal pole from under his own bed and struck the intruder. 

After the second or third blow, Coffey said: "Stop, enough, I'm done."

Surrey Police found Coffey also had zip ties and tape when they arrested him. He was taken to a mental hospital with a head injury while his victims were taken to St George's Hospital with serious but non life-threatening injuries.

Mr Dowlut still has injuries to his fingers which stop him using a computer.

Miss Dowlut spent three days in hospital and her A Level grades suffered as a result of her experience.

Coffey admitted attempted murder and wounding with intent at a Guildford Crown Court hearing on October 21.

Charges of attempted murder, wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and aggravated burglary were left to lie on file.

Defence lawyer Richard McConaghy said Coffey's mother was a drug addict and his father an alcoholic. The court also heard Coffey had been taking LSD, ecstasy and cannabis fro the age of 16.

Mr McConaghy said Coffey's early claims that "voices made him do it" were not true but he was in a "jealous rage" at the time.

He said: "He found himself delving into a world where he lived his life online rather than forming particular personal, meaningful relationships."

He said Coffey had gone to the house the previous day but had second thoughts and returned to his hotel, the Premier Inn in Epsom.

He hacked into Miss Dowlut's computer, read her online conversations and his jealousy returned.

Mr McConaghy said: "His intention was to kill himself as well after this incident had taken place."

Temporary Detective Chief Inspector Anthony Archibald said: "This was an extremely frightening incident for the family, carried out by a troubled man who carefully planned the attack with disturbing precision.

"We have no doubt that Coffey intended to kill that night and he may have done had it not been for the brave and courageous actions of the family members who stopped him and quickly contacted police."

His flight is believed to have been the first time Coffey had left the country - having obtained a passport to make the transatlantic trip and booked a hotel and taxi in Epsom, as well as a Holiday Inn near Heathrow which he later cancelled.

Coffey, who was then 19 and working at a tyre technician in North Weymouth, Massachusetts, even booked tickets for a concert in Amsterdam with a flight there from London which he would have taken on April 20 - two days after the attack.

When US police searched his house in Weymouth, near Boston, they found an Xbox 360 games console, a zombie video game called “Dead Island: Riptide,” a package of shower caps, a black KA-BAR knife and sheath and photographs.

His father David Shore, 60, who lives in Florida, told the Daily Mirror this week that Miss Dowlut was his son's ex-girlfriend after they split up on Christmas Eve.

He said that he and his wife Margaret, 55, did not know their "quiet" and "shy" son, an only child, had left the country until Massachusetts police contacted him and that they thought he had flown abroad after winning a trip in a dance competition.