AN “ANGRY and jealous” teenager stabbed a love rival at a house party while high on cannabis.

Finley Apps was so enraged at being dumped that he took a knife to a party at Bevendean Crescent, where he knew his ex-girlfriend would be.

The uninvited teenager was seen holding his head in his hands during the party, before deciding to go upstairs to confront his ex and a boy she was with.

He approached his unsuspecting victim, who had never met him before, smiling and reaching as if to hug him.

But Apps then plunged the knife into the boy’s back, then stabbed him twice more in the stomach.

Later he sent “bragging” text messages to his ex-girlfriend about what he had done.

The victim said: “I was petrified, I was truly fearful that I was going to die. I honestly thought I would never see my friends and family again.”

In a video link hearing Apps was told he was “dangerous” by Judge Shani Barnes, who sentenced him to six years behind bars.

But his sentence was reduced because of his age and because of his difficulties with Aspergers.

Apps, now 19, was found guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm, but told the court he was “truly sorry” and wished he could “turn the clock back”.

A jury rejected his claim that he had acted to somehow “protect” his ex-girlfriend.

The court heard how the incident happened on July 25 last year in Bevendean Crescent.

Matthew Turner, prosecuting, said: “This was a sustained and repeated assault on the victim, with three stabs, first to the back, thereafter two stabs to the stomach.”

The victim shouted out that he had been stabbed as Apps tried to flee the house.

Victoria Meads, defending, said Apps had a difficult upbringing, being excluded from school at 13 and not being correctly diagnosed with autism.

She said Apps, of St Peters Road, Portslade, had “fallen through the cracks” and that if he had been diagnosed sooner, the whole incident may not have happened.

Judge Barnes said: “This was an unprovoked, malicious attack on this innocent boy who had done nothing to deserve it.

“You turned up there, angry, jealous and in an emotional state. You had been smoking cannabis that day and that evening.

“She did not want to deal with you, she had stopped being your girlfriend. You took your knife out not because you were afraid.

“Your text messages tell me you were not terrified for your safety, and you were not sort of hero going up those stairs.

“I believe you took the knife with you that night in case you needed it and were willing to use it.”