A man appeared in court yesterday accused of a stabbing.

John George Lowndes, 36, was remanded in custody until November.

The 61-year-old victim of the attack is still recovering at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

He was stabbed several times in the chest at about 5.30pm last Thursday, in Dean Court Road, Rottingdean.

He suffered a punctured lung in the attack. His condition is now described as stable.

After the stabbing, police cordoned off the wisteria-covered house in the peaceful street.

Neighbours said the first they knew of the drama was when police arrived.

Lowndes, of no fixed abode, was arrested on Friday night. He appeared before Brighton Magistrates’ Court yesterday charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. He was remanded in custody until the next court hearing on November 14.

The incident is the latest in a series of stabbings in the Sussex area which have prompted The Argus to start its Knives Cost Lives campaign, which has attracted an unprecedented response from readers.

Last month, The Argus revealed 1,050 knife crimes were committed in Sussex in the past year, an average of one every eight and a half hours. Last month, John Summers, 52, was stabbed in the chest at his home in Osborne Villas, Hove.

In Crowborough, bridegroom Joseph Pettenden Hunt, 27, and his best man Jason Holt, 35, were slashed by gatecrashers at the wedding party.

And Hajrudin Hasanovic, 32, was charged with stabbing to death his wife Cassandra Hasanovic, 24, with a kitchen knife in Bognor.

Almost 1,000 readers have backed calls for a tougher stance on knife crime and its causes by signing a petition addressed to Home Office minister Tony McNulty. You can sign our petition online, click here.