A monstrous couple who tortured their friend in an ‘inhumane’ attack have been jailed for a total of 50 years.
Jon Hamblin, 43, and porn model Jessica Whinham, 21, subjected Paul Binks to a terrifying ordeal in which they stabbed him in his sleep and left him with his intestines hanging out.
The victim woke up to find he had been stabbed and later had to beg for his life before being released, police said.
Newcastle Crown Court heard Whinham deliberately played a song she knew her victim disliked before telling him it would be the “last song you’ll ever hear”.
Binks was then strangled with a cord before being put in the bath and told he would drown during the horrific ordeal in North Shields, Tyne and Wear, in September 2021.
He eventually managed to escape the flat while “holding his guts” and knock on a nearby door, before nearly dying as he was rushed to hospital.
The attack took place at Whinham’s flat in Stanley West, North Shields, on September 10, 2021.
The apparent motive for the ordeal was Mr Binks sharing a rumor with Hamblin that Whinham was “grass”, which he said he did to warn him to be careful.
Hamblin and Wingham later tried to blame each other for what police described as “inhumane” violence, but both were found guilty of attempted murder after a trial at Newcastle Crown Court last year.
During the trial, Mr Binks described waking up to find Hamblin standing over him with a knife, having already stabbed him.
Mr Binks said: “I looked down and pulled my top off and there was a tube, my gut. I was trying to push it back. I remember he was trying to go for my neck and I raised my hand.
“He was standing over me with a knife, I couldn’t tell. I thought I was dreaming. I’m starting to think I’ve been hurt badly here. I was bleeding profusely.
“Jess [Whinham] he mopped up the blood. There was little flesh. I thought it was my liver. I was in a dream-like state. It was so surreal.
“He took the piece of flesh off me and put it in the bucket. Jess said, “We’ve got your heart out, it’s in the bucket.”
“I had no strength at all, my guts were in company. I think I went into survival mode. I remember thinking, “I’m not dying here, I have to survive.”
Mr Binks said Whinham told him: “It’s done, it’s done, you’re dead, it’s over, you’re dead.”
Hamblin then put a phone charger around his neck and clamped it with his foot on his back, to the point where he heard it squeak before the pair carried him into the bathroom.
The horrified victim said: “John put the hot water on and said he was going to drown me. I said, “No, no, don’t choke me, it’s one of my worst fears.” I said just stab me.’
But Hamblin reportedly told him, “He’s dead peaceful, you’re going to be all right, you’re going to die anyway, you might as well have a peaceful death.”
Mr Binks said Whinham complained that her gas was being “wasted on you” by using hot water so she switched to running the cold tap.
He said Hamblin told him he was “basically already dead” and said he was going to “cut me up and put me all over North Tyneside”, but after promising not to tell anyone what they had done, Binks was finally told he could go .
The victim added: “I was screaming, I was spitting blood. I asked him to help me up. He said I couldn’t go unless I got myself out of the bathroom.’
He said a surge of adrenaline helped him get out, but he “remembered tearing up more” as he did so. Mr Binks added: “I’m holding my guts and I’ve been holding them in.”
After leaving the house, Mr Binks was rushed to hospital after he turned up bleeding profusely at the home of a shocked couple in the early hours of the morning and nearly died in the street.
Hamblin, of Stirling Drive, North Shields, has 63 previous convictions and was jailed for 29 years.
Whinham, who has no previous convictions, was sentenced to 21 years behind bars.
During their sentencing on February 16, the pair were branded dangerous by Judge Robert Adams and told they must also serve two-thirds of their sentences behind bars.
Both infinitives were given limiting constraints.
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