A woman who was stabbed 11 times by her ex-boyfriend after she tried to leave him has spoken out about her frightening ordeal.
Vicious Jack Sutton, 24, used to check what underwear Cynthi Dolgeova, 23, was wearing when she went out during their toxic relationship.
His horrifying campaign of abuse culminated in an aggressive attack in December 2021 when Sutton slashed and knifed his partner after Googling the length of prison sentences for murder, The Mirror reports.
Sutton pleaded guilty to attempted murder at Leeds Crown Court and was locked up for 16 years at the beginning of this month.
Cynthi, a production worker from Czech Republic, had moved to Scarborough with Sutton after they met on the dating app Badoo while he was working abroad in her home country in April 2020.
But within months their relationship became "toxic and controlling" as Cynthi says her ex-partner became paranoid that she was cheating.
She said: "From the beginning there were a lot of red flags. After 14 days he told me he was in love with me and that I was made for him and to be fair I fell in love quite quickly as well.
"The start of our relationship was really nice, it was just normal.
"We moved in together after two months but after that he started being really toxic, he didn't want me to go out and see my friends. He just wanted me for himself.
"Every time I wanted to go out he was checking what knickers I was wearing and if I had shaved, all of these horrible things. He was accusing me of sleeping with my own mum's boyfriend.
"At the time I thought it was normal but now when I look back I realise it wasn't normal at all what he was doing to me."
In February 2021, the couple moved to Scarborough, North Yorkshire, after Sutton's job in the Czech Republic finished.
But just four months after she had uprooted her life and left her family and friends, Cynthi says she discovered her boyfriend had been cheating on her.
She said: "I left everything my family friends my job everything I left it all for him so it was really hard for me.
"After four months of being in the UK I found out that he was cheating on me, he had a phone full of dating apps and was paying for OnlyFans.
"I tried to leave him a thousand times but he would tell me that if I left him he would kill me and kill himself.
"He was always fighting with other boys and he would occasionally push me away but he had never hit me. It was just the physical and mental abuse."
In October 2021 the abuse became too much for Cynthi who decided to move in with her best friend, Aimee, and left Sutton.
But still believing he was the love of her life, the couple decided to meet for one final dinner on December 10 to discuss their future.
She said: "I really loved him I thought he was the man that I was going to marry one day even after all this.
"We decided to go for a last dinner to talk about things between us and I said that I just needed some time.
"He told me that he understood and that he was going to wait for me, that he was going to start therapy for his aggression.
"He brought me home and he was crying and said that he really wanted me back and I told him I would think about it."
But later that night, after returning home to Aimee, the friends decided they were going to go for a drink, only to realise that Sutton had taken Cynthi's ID.
With Aimee's support, Cynthi arranged to meet Sutton for a second time that night to retrieve her ID, but after asking to speak with her privately, he launched his attack.
Cynthi said: "He was saying 'come with me behind this corner, I just want to talk to you in private,' so I tried to grab it out of his hand and that's when he started stabbing me.
"He pushed me against a wall and started stabbing me all over.
"I remember I could feel the knife getting stuck in my ribs and he was trying to get it out, it was awful.
"I think at this point the knife broke so he started beating me up. He was jumping on my ribs and kicking my head like a ball.
"I was screaming help and yelling at Aimee to call the police.
"While I was lying on the floor I was begging him to stop and let us sort it out."
Cynthi was rushed to hospital where doctors found she was bleeding into her lungs, had multiple broken ribs and damage to her spine.
But after returning from hospital after multiple surgeries, she was still left with physical and mental scars.
She said: "It took me a long time before I realised what actually happened. He was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.
"The first two months after I came back from hospital were horrendous, there were times when I wished that he had killed me that day.
"I couldn't bear to look at myself in the mirror at all the scars that he left behind there were days when I wanted to be dead."
During the court hearing Cynthi discovered that her toxic ex had even Googled the length of prison sentences for murder prior to launching his attack.
She said: "When I heard that I just broke down in tears because I realised he really was trying to kill me."
Now with Sutton behind bars, she says she can sleep at night, but will always live in fear of his release.
She said: "Before the court hearing I couldn't sleep every night, I was having nightmares, I was waking up sweating.
"I can sleep now, even now there are triggers that remind me of him, songs, places we used to go together, or certain smells.
"I know he's a psychopath. I'm terrified that he's going to find me one day and finish it.
"I never ever want another boyfriend, I don't want men around me I'm worried is another boyfriend going to do the same to me."
But while Cynthi is still working on trusting people she believes she must make her second chance with life "worth something".
She said: "When I was dying on the floor I was thinking I'm only 23 I'm too young to die.
"I never thought this would happen to me but I'm lucky to be alive and I promised myself that I was going to make my life worth it."
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
