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A passionate romance turned to terror and bloodshed for a man whose lover flew into a frenzy and tried to stab him to death.

Vicious Harriet Sharp, 25, grabbed a kitchen knife and plunged it 28 times into her ­fiancé Martyn Brown.

The blade punctured his lung and left him just an hour from death.

The horror was the culmination of a three-month campaign of attacks, bullying and manipulation by Sharp – against the man she had agreed to marry.

(Image: Sunday People)

Earlier this month she admitted three counts of malicious wounding and was sentenced to 11 years behind bars.

Martyn, 29, is recovering well from his physical wounds but the mental scars cut far deeper. He has even attempted suicide and is still in hospital suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

But he is bravely trying to rebuild his life. And he decided to speak to the Sunday People about his ordeal – for himself and other male victims of ­domestic violence too ashamed to speak up.

The handsome ex-barman said: “I’m not scared to speak out now. When you’re told you’ve only got an hour to live you don’t care what you say.

“Anyone going through this needs to know there are organisations out there that can help you. Talk to friends, talk to your ­family. Don’t be a sufferer like me.”

Martyn and Sharp started dating in spring last year when a mutual friend set them up. They went to the same ­secondary school, where he remembered her being quiet and friendly.

He thought she was lovely, a little shy but funny and witty.

They enjoyed dates to places such as Madame Tussauds in Blackpool and a night away in Leeds.

Martyn said: “For the first five months everything was going great and it felt right to move in with her.”

(Image: Sunday People)

A month later, Sharp broke with tradition by proposing in a pub to Martyn with a diamond-shaped sweet.

He said: “I thought she was joking at first but she said, ‘No, I’m being serious.’ It was in front of everyone. I went a bit red but I said yes straight away. I was in love.”

Martyn, who was also working as a labourer, and Sharp, who had not worked for a year after quitting her job at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, excitedly began planning their future.

They wanted to get a flat in nearby Thornton and they named October 22, 2017, as their wedding day.

But Sharp’s behaviour took a menacing turn.

One night last October Sharp had been binge drinking and came home in an ­aggressive mood.

Martyn said: “I tried to calm her down. She went to the kitchen, got a knife and sliced my neck. I was shocked, I asked her, ‘What the hell are you doing?’”

The next day Sharp apologised and gave Martyn a hug. He did not get any ­medical treatment.

(Image: Sunday People)

He was so shocked by her behaviour he ­convinced himself it was a one-off.

But Martyn could not have been more wrong. Sharp, usually drunk on cheap cider, began regularly attacking him. He said: “She’d slap me about when she was drunk, scratch me on my arm and scrape a knife across my leg.”

Anything could trigger an attack, such as a row with her mother.

She would pull Martyn’s hair and try to strangle him. He felt trapped but never retaliated.

He said: “As a bloke I thought, ‘This shouldn’t be ­happening to me.’

“I didn’t think there was any help out there for people like me. You hear a lot about women in this situation but not men. I was too ashamed to tell ­anyone what was happening.

“I told them I had slipped and fallen over in the bath and cut myself.”

Sharp’s campaign to isolate and ­manipulate Martyn intensified when she texted all his friends saying he no longer wanted to speak to them.

When he went out for a pint with his dad she rang to say she had collapsed. He went home to discover she was fine.

He said: “When she was drunk she would call me worthless and scum and say she was going to cheat on me. But at other times she would still tell me she loved me and give me a hug.”

In December, once again Sharp, who had argued with her mum, went for Martyn with a knife. He said: “She sliced my skin to the bone on my left arm, where it meets my hand. I felt sick and dizzy. I went into the kitchen and had an epileptic fit and collapsed on the floor.

(Image: Sunday People)

“I was crawling towards Harriet but she ignored me and carried on watching TV. Then she told me to say I’d had an ­accident chopping food.”

Paramedics were suspicious but Martyn stuck to his story and refused to go to hospital. It was a decision that nearly cost him his life on January 11.

He said: “I took Harriet to the pub for a meal. We had a nice day and got home about half four. We got a few drinks in and we started rowing about 8pm.

“She came at me in the front room with a kitchen knife her eyes looked angry and she started swiping at me. I tried to protect myself but she stabbed me in my left lung. Then she stabbed me all over my body, 28 times in total. Blood was pouring all over the place. It lasted about 15 minutes, before she suddenly stopped.”

Sharp called an ambulance for herself, pretending she had stomach pains, and hid the couple’s kitchen knives in their oven in a bid to escape justice.

She told Martyn to keep quiet and ­callously tried to bar paramedics from ­entering the flat. Thankfully, the police were called to assist.

Martyn said: “I thought I was going to die and I was later told I was one hour away from death. My lung had filled up with blood.”

(Image: Sunday People)

Martyn said: “I thought I was going to die and I was later told I was one hour away from death. My lung had filled up with blood.”

Martyn went into theatre at Preston Royal Hospital with appalling injuries, including a punctured left lung and ­internal bleeding.

“After three nights in a coma he woke up and told the police everything. He said: “I was still worried Harriet was after me but they told me she was in the police station and couldn’t get me.

“My elder brother Andrew came to see me. He was close to tears and asking what the hell had happened.

“My own dad said, ‘If only you’d told me.’ I had been too ashamed and too scared.”

Martyn was ­discharged from hospital in January after 11 days but by March his mental health had completely broken down and he tried to take his life.

He said: “I just didn’t want to be here any more.

“They sectioned me. I still have my down days. It’s very hard to deal with. I hate my appearance. I hate the way I look because of my scars.”

Martyn has been a patient at Blackpool’s Harbour Hospital for 11 weeks and is hoping to move soon to a halfway house run by a domestic violence charity.

(Image: Sunday People)

He has suffered from panic ­attacks, PTSD and hallucinations since the abuse and is receiving support from an independent male domestic violence advocate.

The physical injuries remain, with nerve damage in his left hand, but he is ­determined to battle on.

Martyn said: “I’m hoping to travel the world then settle down into a relationship. I want to get back into work too.

I definitely see a future for myself. I’m determined to look forward, I don’t want to let her win.”

Sentencing Sharp to 11 years at Preston crown court, Judge Robert Altham ­branded her a “dangerous woman”.

Martyn said: “I was happy with the sentence. It was completely ­justified. I’ve never had an explanation for why she did what she did. I looked at her in court and she looked emotionless. She turned her head away like she didn’t care.

“She’s shown me no remorse ­whatsoever. I hate her and I think she deserves everything she gets.”