A VIOLENT thug, who’s been “tormented” due to his disability, repeatedly stabbed a woman in a “horrific and barbaric” attack in her Southend home, leaving the knife lodged in her arm.

James Reilly, 30, left his victim covered in blood during the cocaine and alcohol-fuel rage after wrongly believing she had giving him HIV.

He was jailed for  19 years at Basildon Crown Court today, where he sat crying in the dock. He burst through a window and attacked the woman at her in in Kensington RoadSouthend on July 3 last year.

Mitigating, Charles Conway, said: “He describes this as a horrific and barbaric case and is struggling to reconcile with the fact he caused her irreparable harm.

“He was born with a deformity, cleft hands and feet and has had 17 operations. He’s been bullied and tormented. He went to get his medical but couldn’t get it due to a shortage and took cocaine and drank alcohol instead.

“He became deluded and thought she’d given him HIV.”

Prosecuting, Caroline Gardiner, said: “She was bleeding so much she was struggling to see and the knife was lodged in the top of her arm near her shoulder.”

Reilly of Guildford Road, Southend admitted attempted murder, possession of a pointed/bladed article, criminal damage and racially/religiously aggravated harassment alarm or distress.