BESOTTED David Martin stabbed his former girlfriend in the chest on their lunch break at work because she refused to take him back, a court heard yesterday.

Martin had started going out with work colleague Kate Taylor while the pair worked together for EDF Energy in Sunderland.

Miss Taylor had ended the relationship, but Martin made repeated attempts to rekindle their romance, Newcastle Crown Court was told.

He arranged to meet Miss Taylor during their lunch break and invited her for a cigarette in his car.

As she went to get out of the car, he lunged at her and she thought he was trying to kiss her.

It was only when she looked down that she realised he had allegedly plunged a knife into her chest. Miss Taylor told Martin’s trial that she thought she was going to die after the attack. “He lunged at me from the driver’s side and was on top of me,” she said, “he pinned me to the chair.

“At first I thought he was trying to grab me and kiss me or pull me back in the car.

“Then I realised he had stabbed me, there was blood everywhere and I saw part of the knife coming out of my chest.

“I thought I was going to die because of where the wound was.”

Prosecutors say Martin plunged the blade deep into Miss Taylor’s chest during the meeting at Doxford Park.

Miss Taylor, who is in her 20s, was left with a 13cm wound above her breast and needed four-and-a-half months off work to recover.

She survived because the knife missed her heart and lungs, the court heard.

Martin, 30, of Telford Road, Thorney Close, Sunderland, denies attempted murder and wounding with intent and is being tried by a jury.

Prosecutor Nicholas Campbell QC showed jurors the black-handled knife that had been left sticking out of Miss Taylor’s chest.

The court heard Miss Taylor had reluctantly agreed to meet up with Martin during her lunch break on May 11 last year after he had “bombarded” her with messages and calls after their break up in November 2011.

Mr Campbell told the court the couple had both been at work that morning and Martin inundated her with messages while she repeatedly told him their relationship was over and they were now just friends.

The court heard that during the lunch break, Martin saw Miss Taylor sitting in a friend’s car and said he needed to talk to her “just one last time”.

Around 10 minutes before her break ended, Miss Taylor went and sat in Martin’s Renault Megane with him, as he had asked. Mr Campbell told the court: “He told her he wanted to get back together. She said no.”

The court heard it was after further discussion that Miss Taylor reached for the door to leave the car and was attacked.

Mr Campbell said: “She just managed to open it when the defendant suddenly lunged at her.

“He got on top of her, pinning her back against the seat. She was shocked. At first she thought he was trying to kiss her but then she looked down and saw she had in fact been stabbed.”

Martin was arrested nearby and claimed he had taken 250 paracetomol after the stabbing. He claims Miss Taylor accidentally impaled herself on the knife, when he held it against her skin as an act of asking for help. The trial continues.