GAZETTE & HERALD: SHARON Beasley was eight months pregnant when her crazed ex-boyfriend smashed his way into her Chippenham flat and stabbed her repeatedly in the stomach.

Her life was saved by plucky neighbour Mario Lymath, who heard her screams and managed to wrestle the knife from Ian Flowers' grip.

As Flowers, of Corsham Road, Lacock, was sentenced to 42 months in jail on Friday, Miss Beasley, 33, said: "Mario's a hero. He truly is my Super Mario."

And she paid tribute to her treasured son Ashley, who was born just four weeks after the frenzied attack.

"I really thought my baby was dead," she said. "It's a miracle he's here."

Traumatised Miss Beasley said she had been too frightened to go to sleep since the terrifying ordeal.

"I can remember thinking 'Oh my God I'm bleeding'," she told the Gazette. "I thought he was going to kill me and the baby. I just can't seem to forget it. It's left me living in fear."

Miss Beasley was at her flat in Field View, Chippenham when the incident happened last November.

"I'd got some fish and chips and was watching the news when the buzzer went off," she recalled. "He said 'It's me, I want to talk'."

She said Flowers, 37, had been leaving death threats on her mobile phone for weeks, so she immediately called the police.

"While I was on the phone I saw the red light on the buzzer come on, which means the main door to the building had been opened. I'd just had a dining room table delivered and all I could think of was putting it against the door to stop him getting in. He was banging against the door to my flat and then smashed his boot through the glass."

Miss Beasley said Flowers pushed her out of the way, heading straight for the kitchen where he grabbed a six-inch carving knife.

She said: "He shouted 'You don't want me to have my son so I'm not going to let you have him either.'

"He stabbed me twice in the belly and once in the left breast. He made several more lunges at me and I fell to the floor to protect the baby. That's when Mario came in."

Mr Lymath, who lives in the flat above Miss Beasley, said: "I knew I had to save her and the baby. I grabbed his arm and bent it, forcing the knife off him.

"I was petrified and shaking. I was scared for my own life but that wasn't on my mind. If I hadn't intervened Sharon would have been six foot under. Hopefully in the years to come Ashley will thank me."

Miss Beasley met Flowers in October 2003 when they were both working for Hygrade. She said they hit it off and he'd soon moved into her home at Maitland Close, Pewsham.

"We were both happy until he started going AWOL," she explained. "I couldn't get hold of him for hours and then he'd come home plastered."

She said a pattern soon started to emerge and after months of bickering, she decided to call off the relationship despite being pregnant with his child.

Miss Beasley said the past few months had been an emotional rollercoaster.

"I'm pleased with the sentence," she said. "But this is going to live with me a lot longer than 42 months."