A SOLDIER who survived a frontline tour of Afghanistan nearly died on his first visit to Hereford when he was stabbed in what a judge called “a bloodbath”.

Craig Rouse needed several hours of specialist surgery and could have lost his life, Worcester Crown Court was told.

The soldier used his training in battlefield injuries to save his own life.

His attacker, Ashley Price, was this week jailed for four years, three months after admitting wounding with intent. The court heard that the two men fought in the kitchen of Price’s former girlfriend’s flat. Mr Rouse had met the woman online days earlier.

Price, aged 23, of Ethelstan Crescent, Newton Farm, had acted in an “immediate moment of anguish”, the court heard.

Passing sentence, Judge Alistair McCreath told Price: “To call it (what happened) a bloodbath isn’t far from the truth.”

Alex Warren, prosecuting, said Mr Rouse was first stabbed in one of his kidneys when Price picked up a kitchen knife as they fought.

A second strike went into Mr Rouse’s right bicep, severing an artery. The wound was so deep, a surgeon treating the soldier said he could have lost the arm.

Instead, said Mr Warren, the 22-year-old needed major surgery and was left with serious scarring. Though he was expected to regain most of the use of his arm, the extent of the damage and its effect on a promising Army career was not yet known.

Mr Rouse, the court heard, had been in Hereford only a short time, having called on Price’s ex-girlfriend at her Hereford home while he was on the way back to base in January this year.

The two had met through an online social site and had previously only exchanged phone calls, e-mails, and texts. She had told him she was not in a relationship.

The court was told Price often babysat for his ex-girlfriend – who had a young son – and had stayed at the flat the previous night. When Price learned she had another man in her flat, he and his uncle went round.

Price smashed his way inside, slashing a hand, when she refused to answer the door. He and Mr Rouse fought in the kitchen while the woman and child cowered in a bedroom.

Lee Marklew, defending, said a broken-hearted Price had completely lost his head and acted in the “immediate moment of anguish”.

Price, said Mr Marklew, had hoped the relationship would last, and spent time with his former girlfriend and the son he “thought of as his own” almost every day since their break-up in August last year after a few weeks together.

On the day of the attack she had sent Price a text saying she was spending the night with a friend who needed consoling having just left a relationship, said Mr Marklew.