A vengeful control freak who used a tracking device to find out where his estranged wife was then launched a frenzied attack with a "Rambo-style knife" on a man she was with has been jailed for 13-and-a-half years.
Tanya Hejazi was visiting Fafa Fajjo when ex partner, Afshin Hejazi, suddenly burst in with his face covered in a mask, armed with a blade and intent on doing serious harm to a man he had never met. He repeatedly stabbed Fafa, causing horrific injuries and also assaulted Tanya in the terrifying episode.
As Hejaz, 45, of Second Avenue, Chester-le-Street, County Durham, was locked up and given a ten-year restraining order at Newcastle Crown Court, his victims outlined the devastating impact of the ordeal and told how they live in fear that he will carry out threats to come back for them when he is released.
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Tanya, who had been separated from Hejazi for three years at the time, said he had "tortured me for the past 20 years" and threatened to harm any new man she met if she let them near their children after they split She added: "I keep thinking about what would have happened if Fafa had died or I had.
"I had only been seeing Fafa for a short time so I had not told him much about the past and the threats he had made in the past. Fafa didn't deserve what happened to him.
"He suffered two holes in the lining of his stomach and he is terrified. We are still both living in fear of Afshin and are frightened he will get let out of prison and find us. I was told Afshin said when he gets out he will come back for us and will do a better job and won't make mistakes this time. It's awful and we are living a nightmare.
"If he gets out I want to run away. He has mentally tortured me for 20 years and is still doing it. He is a volatile and dangerous man and he doesn't care about family and who he hurts."
Fafa, who was stabbed four times, four of them to the abdomen, said he had run for his life and added: "I'm fortunate I'm still alive. I feel this man has no regrets about what he has done.
"I have nightmares and see this man in my dreams. When I close my eyes I can see the eyes of this man when he attacked me again and again.
"I feel when he is released from prison he will come back and do it again. No matter where we go this man will try to find us. It's put me in constant fear of our lives.
"I think he is a dangerous and aggressive man. I'm trapped in a nightmare and living in fear every day."
Fafa, who went on to form a relationship with Tanya but has since split from her, added: "In just one night my dream turned into a nightmare. This man has taken my life. He has taken everything I had and I didn't even know this man before he came into my home and attacked me."
It was in the early hours of October 27 last year that Tanya, 39, decided to visit Mr Fajjo, at a multi-occupancy house in South Shields. They were sitting on the bed speaking and after around 30 minutes she got a messages from her estranged husband.
Hejazi said to her: "Did I fix your car to go and **** your boyfriend. Go home watch your kids crying" then added "Go home Tanya.", prosecuting, said during the trial: "She was shocked and frightened at having received the message and couldn't understand how he could know where she was and what she was doing.
"Within the next confused minutes the defendant appeared in that bedroom, wearing a black hooded top with the hood up and a bandana tied over his face, so only his eyes could be seen." Without a word being said he reached into the waistband of his trousers and pulled out a "Rambo-style knife", ran towards Mr Fajjo and in a "frenzied attack" repeatedly stabbed him with the weapon.
Tanya said she saw "three or four plunges" with the knife but was unsure how many went into Mr Fajjo. She added: "I tried to pull Afshin off him at one point and Afshin turned and the point of the knife went in my wrist. The look in his eyes, I knew, I just ran.
"I just ran, I saw his eyes and thought 'he's going to end up killing him and killing me' and I just went to get help. I was frozen. I was shaken. I thought he was going to come after me and kill me. I was terrified to move. He was trying to kill Fafa. I think he would have killed me, I don't know."
The question of how he knew where to find them, given it was the first time she had gone to Mr Fajjo's home, was answered when police found a tracking device on Tanya's car, which had been put there by Hejazi. He had an app on his phone showing him every time the car moved and displayed a real-time location for it.
She later found he had been accessing her social media and messaging accounts and even after he was remanded in custody, he continued to try to control her by writing a letter, ostensibly to their daughter, saying he was going to be in prison for years because of Tanya and asking her to drop the case, saying he had done nothing wrong.
Mr Herrmann added: "Tanya said he had directly threatened her if she was with another man near to their children he would kill her and whoever she was with. He said he didn't care and prison would not bother him."
Hejazi pleaded guilty to wounding with intent on Mr Fajja, attempting to pervert the course of justice and possessing a knife. He was found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm on Tanya and cleared of attempting to murder Mr Fajja.
Christopher Knox, defending, said there was another side to Hejazi and handed in references about him.
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