THUG RYAN LEGGETT JAILED FOR STABBING HIS PARTNER EIGHT TIMES AFTER SHE CAUGHT HIM IN BED WITH A MAN
A thug who stabbed his female partner eight times to silence her after she caught him in bed with a male lover has been jailed for 27 years.Ryan Leggett, 35, took a knife from a drawer and stabbed her eight times causing wounds to her neck and chest and damage to her lungs and liver.
The attack happened after Leggett's partner returned home from work early and found him naked in bed with another man and a plate of cocaine on November 23.
Ipswich Crown Court heard he had 'left her to die' after taking her phone and locking her in the house in Lowestoft Road, Lowestoft, after the assault.
Judge Martyn Levett jailed Leggett for 27 years and said the attack, which left the woman with life-threatening injuries, was 'deliberate, calculated and cowardly'.
The judge said he believed Leggett hoped she would die to "save his own embarrassment".
He added: "You are an unpredictable and dangerous man and prone to terrible outbursts of violence after taking drugs." In addition to jailing him for 27 years, Judge Levett passed an extended licence period of three years following Leggett's release.
He said Leggett would have to serve two-thirds of the sentence before the parole board could consider if it was safe to release him and on what terms.
He passed an indefinite restraining order banning Leggett from contacting the victim or her family.
Judge Levett praised the police officers and paramedics who attended the "traumatic" scene.
The victim suffered eight stab wounds, including two to her chest, which caused a fractured rib and a punctured lung.
She also suffered wounds to her cheek, back of her neck, her upper arm and her hand, and a stab wound to her abdomen, which led to internal bleeding and damage to her liver.
Leggett, of Lowestoft Road, Carlton Colville, had denied attempted murder, but was convicted by a jury in September.
He had earlier pleaded guilty to a separate charge of threatening a person with a knife in a private place.
The court heard that couple had been in a relationship for about four years when the 33-year-old victim got home from work at 1am.
She walked into the bedroom to find Leggett in bed with a man and what she thought to be cocaine on a plate nearby.
She said “what the hell is going on?
It’s disgusting” and the other man had got out of bed and left, the court heard.
Leggett allegedly took her phone after telling her: ”You’re not having it.
You’ll tell people.” She later told police she had gone into the kitchen, where Leggett took a knife out of a drawer before pushing her over and holding the knife at her throat.
“I didn’t think he would use it as it as I always thought he was one of the nicest people I’ve ever met,” she told police.
She told Leggett she wanted him gone by the morning and went upstairs.
But shortly afterwards Leggett had walked up to her carrying two knives and started to stab her.
The court heard she told police: “I’m bleeding on the floor thinking I’m going to die." The woman said Leggett had then pointed the knives at his own neck and she told him: “Don’t do it”.
Duncan O'Donnell, prosecuting, had said the alarm was raised by another resident of the house who climbed out of a window and knocked at a neighbour’s door.
The court heard that Leggett was arrested on the day of the attack at his father’s home after he contacted the police and told them he wanted to hand himself in.
He had self-inflicted wounds to his wrist and made a comment to police officers about having to get used to prison and allegedly added: “I’m a criminal.
It is what it is”.
The victim told the court she and Leggett separated in March last year but had reconciled several months later.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, the woman said the attack had left her suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and that she continues to experience nightmares.
She said her life and that of her family had been “significantly affected”, adding that she remains fearful of Leggett and has had to move home.
The woman added: "I feel paranoid out in public.
I feel people just see me as the girl Ryan Leggett tried to kill.
Our whole relationship was a lie."
