A man stabbed his partner 17 times in front of their baby because she had refused him sex.

After the ‘frenzied’ attack, Antonio Neto locked the badly injured woman inside her house in Manchester, a court heard.

He has been jailed for 12 years.

The 26-year-old woman had invited Neto, 46, who lived at another address, to the home she shared with their three children to have dinner and help decorate the Christmas tree.

But he turned violent when he wanted sex but she rejected him.

He got a knife and told the victim: ‘Move the baby because I’m going to do something bad.’

During the attack, he bit her face and body and stabbed her, telling her: ‘You brought all this on yourself’.’

The baby was lying in the cot at the time and his face was splashed with blood.

When she called 999 in the aftermath, Neto put the phone down – but police traced the call and broke through the door to get in.

They found the woman naked and bleeding heavily on the stairs, with her and Neto’s other two children, aged three and four, by her side.

She was lucky to survive the attack, the court heard, suffering a perforated bowel and a collapsed lung whch meant she spent more than a month in hospital.

Neto was originally charged with attempted murder, but prosecutors accepted a guilty plea to causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Judge Michael Leeming described the attack as ‘frenzied and sustained’ and told Neto he is a ‘danger to the public’.

The court heard Neto attacked a former partner in 2002 while she held their baby, because she said ‘no’ to sex – but he was spared jail.