A jilted lover who stabbed his ex-partner five times and forced their son to tie her up while she lay bleeding has been jailed for 12 years.

Andrew Harding, 41, lay in wait for Deborah Fisher at her house in Wardley Street, Earlsfield, and stabbed her six times, telling her: "Every time you move I'll stab you again."

As she lay in a pool of blood on the living room floor, mumbling incoherently with pain, their 18-year-old son Paul came home.

He begged his father to let him help her but Harding refused. In a statement to police, Paul said: "My mum was lying quite close to me. I was desperate to help her. I didn't want her to die.

"I asked him could I tend to her wounds and attempt to stop the bleeding. My dad said no. I said to him, 'You're not going to let her die are you?' He said he didn't know."

After the attack on June 23 last year, Harding ordered his son to fetch some tape, a baseball bat and change his clothing.

He made Paul bind his mother's hands and feet and, deciding it was not tight enough, made him do it again.

Harding drove his son at knifepoint to Purley, where Miss Fisher's new boyfriend, John Allaway, lived.

As the car passed through Mitcham, Harding allowed Paul to telephone an ambulance for his mother.

But when the ambulance service called back, Harding lost his temper. The 999 call was recorded and Paul was heard to say: "I can't speak. I've got a knife to my throat. I'm going to die if I keep speaking."

When they arrived at Mr Allaway's house, Harding smashed the glass in the door with the baseball bat.

He held a knife to his son's throat and shouted to Mr Allaway: "Get out here or I'll kill him."

Harding stabbed Mr Allaway in the hand, severing an artery. He told Paul to return to the car and they left the scene before he gave himself up to police.

In the meantime, Miss Fisher had managed to stagger out of her house and was seen by a passerby who called an ambulance.

She was taken to St George's Hospital in Tooting, where she nearly died three times during her seven week stay. She is now recovering.

Harding, who pleaded guilty to all counts, was jailed at the Old Bailey on Friday for 12 years for attempted murder, four years for threats to kill and another four years for grievous bodily harm, to run concurrently.

Passing sentence, Judge Richard Hone QC said it was likely Harding would only serve half his sentence - less than six years.