AN Ipswich father whose former wife stabbed him with a kitchen knife today told how his life has fallen apart since the attack.

AN Ipswich father whose former wife stabbed him with a kitchen knife today told how his life has fallen apart since the attack.

Dad-of-two Adeeb Alsugair required five days of hospital care after Jodie Gray plunged the blade into his chest following an argument at her Shackleton Road home last April.

Gray, 21, who was found guilty of wounding Mr Alsugair by a jury at Ipswich Crown Court, will be sentenced later this month.

Today, almost a year on from the attack, Mr Alsugair said he is still taking medication to deal with the depression which followed.

And he claimed he is facing severe financial difficulties because he has been unfit for work since the incident.

He said: “I am on anti-depressants and until a month ago I felt very, very low.

“I have also been under stress and felt frustrated because I have had to live without money.

“I lost my job when I was in hospital recovering and between then and the New Year, I was not receiving any benefits.

“It meant that I had to borrow from my friends. I have also run up £2,000 on my credit card.”

The pair, now divorced, met at an Ipswich pizza parlour in 2002 and married a year later, on March 15, 2003.

Mr Alsugair of Old Foundry Road, Ipswich said: “We had some happy times together. We were not always arguing, but things went wrong.”

During the trial, the court heard that Gray smashed Mr Alsugair's car windscreen with a garden ornament.

On the night in question, April 28, he had been trying to call 999 when she stabbed him on the doorstep.

Mr Alsugair said: “After she stabbed me I was in a critical condition. The wound was not far from the heart and the doctors said it could have been much worse.

“What she has done to me has marked all of my life. She's made me a different person. I just keep myself to myself now.

“I don't care if she is sent to prison, I just want to be far away from her.”

Gray will be sentenced in the week beginning April 16.

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