Man who stabbed ex-partner 22 times jailed

A man who hid in his ex-partner's home before he stabbed her 22 times in front of her two young children has been jailed for more than 22 years.

Jake Joe Bamber, from York, waited inside a cupboard and then launched a 15-minute attack, leaving her with collapsed lungs and wounds to her chest, abdomen, legs, head and back.

The 35-year-old admitted attempted murder, possession of a blade, and two counts each of controlling/coercive behaviour and stalking.

At Leeds Crown Court earlier, Judge Robin Mairs sentenced Bamber to 22 years and four months in prison with five years on licence, and said any remorse he had shown was "performative and self-serving".

On 10 January this year, while on bail and under investigation for offences against the woman, he gained unlawful entry to her home with a knife.

He snuck up on her while she was on the phone in the bathroom to a man, saying "heard that, got you", before stabbing her as her five- and six-year-old children watched on.

After she fell down the stairs while attempting to seek help, Bamber followed her, grabbed her hair and continued to stab her.

The court heard the woman, who is in her 20s, had "begged him to stop" and not hurt her any further in front of her children.

After his knife broke, which the judge said highlighted the "ferocity" of the attack, he went to fetch a second, larger knife from the kitchen.

"No thought of changing course, no thought of not attacking her, crossed your mind," the judge said.

"You were clearly determined to kill her."

Bamber eventually fled the property and inflicted "mainly superficial" injuries to himself, before being arrested by police.

In her victim impact statement, which she read to the court, the woman said her life had changed "beyond recognition".

"Someone I once believed loved me hunted me down and I barely escaped with my life," she said.

"Although I survived, a part of me died that night…I used to be confident, hopeful, right now I barely recognise myself."

She said she fought to breathe and stay conscious in front of the children, "thinking my last sight of this world would be my two babies standing over me, terrified, covered in blood".

"They saw me bleeding and gasping for breath, they screamed and begged for my life…I replay their screams and terror over and over in my head," she added.

The victim's mother, in her statement, said the children had become "withdrawn, quiet and vacant".

She said the older child had told her the blood on her pyjamas was Bamber's, from "when he tried to stop her from helping her mummy".

The judge told Bamber: "They are trying at their tender age to make sense of and live with the experience of you trying to stab their mother to death in front of them.

"What you did dominates their days and haunts the nights of this family."

The victim had ended a two-year relationship with Bamber at the end of 2025 after he became violent, once smashing her head into a mirror so hard it broke.

He initially refused to move out of her home in the Rawcliffe area but, after a few days, moved into a nearby flat where he could "spy on her".

In the weeks before the attack, he repeatedly snuck into her home and moved items around, once taking a Halloween mask from the loft and leaving it in the driveway.

He would shout through her letterbox, jump out at her in the street during darkness, and stand at the end of her garden and watch the house.

Bamber once entered the property and ripped up her underwear.

On a further occasion, he threw himself at her car, tried to open the doors and "most chillingly of all", the judge said, screamed at her that he was going to kill her.

On 9 January, the woman found wet footprints on the floor and stayed elsewhere.

The locks were changed the following morning, the day of the attack, which the prosecutor said suggested Bamber had been hiding in the property for many hours.

After the attack, having heard the older child shouting for help from the upstairs window, a neighbour climbed through the window and found the woman.

The judge said he had "no doubt" her actions had helped save the victim's life.

"I would like to put on record the court's commendation of [her] courage," he said, noting that she did not know whether Bamber was still inside.

He said it was an act of "complete selflessness and absolute courage", and she had shown "huge calmness and compassion in extreme circumstances".

The judge said Bamber's existing diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder did not impact his ability to "exercise appropriate judgement and make rational choices".

He found Bamber's use of cocaine was the only factor impairing his judgement.

The defendant received credit for his guilty plea but there was "little substantial mitigation" otherwise, the judge said.

Bamber was handed an indefinite restraining order preventing him from indirectly or directly contacting the victim or her children.

He will still remain on licence until 27 years and four months from the sentencing date regardless of whether he gets parole, the judge said.

Det Ch Insp Carol Kirk, lead investigator on the case for North Yorkshire Police, said the level of brutality was "beyond belief".

"I commend the strength and bravery of the victim," she said.

"Even though she was desperately injured, her first thought was to protect her young children and she told them what to do to call for help."

She said the victim, children and neighbour were "true heroes".

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