A JEALOUS ex-boyfriend plunged a knife into the chest of a stranger he mistakenly believed was with his former partner.

Jake Randall, 20, had an evil grin as he drove the steak knife into the man’s chest while he was enjoying a night out in Colchester High Street, a court heard.

The unprovoked attack left the victim with a collapsed lung and would almost certainly have been fatal if it had been just four millimetres to the left.

Randall had become enraged after seeing on Snapchat the mother of his child was out enjoying herself.

Determined to ask her who was looking after their son, he called her and said he was going to find her and kill her, along with whoever she was with.

He left his home in Friday Wood Green, Colchester, and met up with a friend who handed him the blade.

As Randall got to the High Street, the woman spotted him and saw he had a knife.

She pushed him away and he then grabbed the victim, spun him around and knifed him in the chest.

Randall, 20, said: “This is because you’re with my baby mother.”

He initially believed he had only been punched before seeing the blood.

The man was rushed to Colchester Hospital and then moved to a specialist unit in Cambridge for life-saving treatment.

In a statement, the victim said he believed he was going to die but was in someway grateful that it was only him who got hurt.

The injuries cost him two months of work and left he and his partner relying on family member to help pay bills.

Randall admitted possession of a knife and wounding with intent.

He ran off after the stabbing but was then attacked by a group of people who had seen what he had done.

He was jailed for six-and-a-half years at Chelmsford Crown Court yesterday and given a five year restraining order.

Gavin Burrell, mitigating, said Randall had seen red at the time and he himself was previously the victim of a stabbing.

Judge David Turner QC said the episode showed a “hideous degree of violence”.

“Everytime someone carries a knife it is a disaster waiting to happen,” he said.

“This was inexplicable.

“It is only fortune which means you are not facing a murder charge.”