A student whose throat was cut from ear to ear has spoken of his ordeal after his attacker was jailed for 12 years.

Paul Lawrence, who has a 12cm red scar on his neck, lost two thirds of his blood following the attack by unemployed Mark Lesley.

Lesley, 27, of Hangleton Road, Hove, was jailed by Hove Crown Court for 12 years yesterday for attempted murder.

Mr Lawrence, 26, who had been at a fancy dress party with university friends, said: "I don't remember a great deal about what happened that night because of my injuries.

"I am pretty much over it now, but I am still a bit paranoid about going out, especially at night.

"I would also like to say that I hope Lesley can now face up to what he has done."

Lesley had come up behind him while he was standing on Hove seafront getting some fresh air and slit his throat, then walked off.

Mr Lawrence fought back tears yesterday as he paid tribute to the men who had saved his life following the attack.

He said: "If it had not been for a member of the public named Richard Germain and the paramedics I would not be alive now.

"I would like to thank them and the police for all they have done and I am relieved it is now all over."

Witnesses told the court how "a man with staring eyes" put his right arm over Mr Lawrence's shoulder and drew it across his throat before walking away.

Richard Cherrill, prosecuting, said Mr Lawrence did not realise what had happened until he felt blood coming from his neck.

Clutching his throat, he desperately banged on windows and doors of seafront flats, pleading for help.

Residents called the police and paramedics, and tried to stem the bleeding from a severed jugular vein until they arrived.

The jury was told that Lesley went to the home of his best friend Gary Burns in Clarendon Road, Hove, and told him what had happened.

He had a kitchen knife with an 8in blade with blood on it.

Lord Morris, QC, defending, said Lesley had little memory of what happened that night, other than he had been in Mr Burns' flat with a knife.

The court heard Lesley had a history of depression and had once been found walking on a railway line with his wrists cut.

He said there was no DNA or forensic evidence to link him to the attack on Mr Lawrence and that CCTV pictures of a man of similar appearance near the scene were inconclusive.

After sentencing Lesley to 12 years in prison yesterday, Judge Anthony Scott-Gall told him: "You are thoroughly dangerous and someone from whom the public needs protection."

Referring to the attack on Paul Lawrence, he said: "That injury, apart from being dreadful, came within millimetres of proving fatal and snuffing out the life of a law abiding young man."