Smethwick station murder bid ends with 19 years jail.

Michael Daniels was high on drugs and armed with a large meat knife when he attacked defenceless Sebastian 'Benji' Oliver from behind at Smethwick's Galton Bridge Station.

He twice plunged the blade into the back of the 30-year-old who then turned round and was stabbed under the left arm. The blows damaged his left lung, liver and right kidney.

Badly hurt Mr Oliver fled across the track pursued by Daniels, aged 44, as a train approached but managed to reach safety on another platform as the knifeman fled from the station on December 12.

The injured man was standing with the defendant's former partner Sapphire Smith - who had recently split up with the attacker - and her 14-year-old daughter, explained Mr Robert Price, prosecuting.

Mr Oliver told Wolverhampton Crown Court: "I felt something hit me in the back and then hit me again. I turned round and saw him holding a knife that was 12 inches from handle to tip.

"I remember putting my hands up and saying that I had not done anything. He lunged at me again and caught me under the armpit. Then I just tried to get away. I feared for my life." His left lung, liver and right kidney were damaged by the knife.

Sapphire Smith attempted to pull Daniels backwards as Mr Oliver jumped onto the track but she was pitched onto the railway line when her former partner chased the fleeing man.

Miss Smith was helped up by her daughter who went on the track to lift her mother back onto the platform - a move that saw the teenager awarded £200 from public funds by Judge Nicholas Webb who said: "She behaved with considerable bravery and deserves the thanks of her mother and this court."

Mr Oliver spent four days in hospital but did not require surgery to his wounds. However he has suffered psychologically since the attack, the court heard.

Daniels, of no fixed address, gave himself up to police the day after the stabbing and told them: "I was just off my head and lost it." He admitted wounding with intent but was convicted of attempted murder after a trial.

Judge Webb told him: "You wrongly believed the injured party was in a relationship with Sapphire Smith when they were just friends. He was wholly unaware of your presence at the station.

"A train was due to stop there but you were indifferent to your own life and, in your fevered, emotional state, were certainly prepared to take his life. That was why you followed him onto the railway track at such a busy time. It was a sustained attack."