A monster who tried to murder a woman he met on a night out was branded an "animal" as he was caged for 29 years.
Matthew Stevens made every woman's worst nightmare come horrifically true, subjecting his victim to a sustained ordeal after she refused to have sex with him. He kicked and stamped on her, stripped her naked, dragged her into wooded undergrowth and tried to finish her off before taking her jewellery as a trophy and leaving her to die.
A court heard she was found "by a miracle" early one morning last March by a dog walker in Brunswick Village, Newcastle, and she was so badly injured police initially thought she was dead. She was hypothermic, had multiple injuries and her face and head were so swollen she was unrecognisable.
