A drunk Felixstowe man stabbed his wife and her sister in the early hours of New Year’s Day after returning home from a night out in the town, a court has heard.

Michael Dawson was nearly three times the drink drive limit when he stabbed his wife Jenny in the neck with a kitchen knife in the bedroom of their home in Mill Lane, Felixstowe, Ipswich Crown was told.

Her sister Laura Thrower, who had been babysitting and was asleep in another bedroom, was awoken by voices and when she went into her sister’s room she found her crouched over and saw blood on the floor.

Mrs Dawson said: “He’s attacked me,” over and over again and when Mrs Thrower went downstairs after hearing the sound of car keys rattling, she saw her brother-in-law standing by the open front door, said Gareth Hughes, prosecuting.

She told him not to drive and to give her the car keys.

However, he told her: “I’ve got a knife,” before allegedly putting his arm round her and “quite deliberately” stabbing her in the stomach, said Mr Hughes.

Mrs Thrower tried to get a towel to stem the bleeding and by then Mrs Dawson and a number of children had come out of their bedrooms and were shouting about calling the police.

At that stage, Dawson had allegedly “launched” himself up the stairs towards his wife, resulting in everyone pleading with him to go, said Mr Hughes.

Dawson had thrown down the knife he’d used to stab Mrs Thrower before getting into his wife’s car and crashing it into a row of trees near a roundabout at the junction of Garrison Lane and Candlet Road.

Dawson had run off but gave himself up shortly afterwards after a dog unit arrived at the scene.

He refused to provide police with a breath specimen and allegedly swore at officers, saying: “Leave me alone. It doesn’t matter anyway, I won’t be here.”

He also allegedly said he couldn’t remember anything about what happened at his home and could only recall standing outside The Grand nightclub in Felixstowe earlier in the evening and being arrested after he crashed his car.

He said he and his wife had been married for 14 years and it had been a good relationship with no violence.

Mr Hughes alleged that during the attack on Mrs Dawson, the blade of the knife had broken and he had used a different knife to stab her sister.

Dawson, 35, of Mill Lane, Felixstowe, has denied wounding both women with intent to cause them grievous bodily harm but the court has heard that he has admitted a less serious charge of wounding them.

The court heard that following the attack, Mrs Dawson and her sister were taken to hospital - where Mrs Dawson was found to have a single 0.5cm-wide wound in her neck, above her right collarbone area.

Mrs Thrower had a single 2.5cm-wide wound in her upper abdomen.

Mr Hughes told the court that a blood sample taken from Dawson after his arrest showed he was nearly three times the legal limit for driving.

He said although Dawson was drunk, he had still been able to make decisions such as selecting a knife to stab his wife, going upstairs to the bedroom and stabbing her, deciding to leave the house, picking up his wife’s car keys, stabbing Mrs Thrower with a second knife and then making his escape.

The court heard that on the night of the attack, Mrs Dawson and her husband had left Mrs Thrower at their house to babysit while they went out in Felixstowe.

They had ended up at The Grand, where Dawson had been asked to leave a around 1am because he had been flailing his arms around and barging into other customers on the dance floor.

“He was being a bit of a pain to others in the nightclub,” said Mr Hughes.

Dawson and his wife had then got a taxi home and the stabbings had taken place at around 2am.

The trial, which is expected to last three days, continues.