A jealous ex-boyfriend who subjected a City of Hamilton councillor to a terrifying knife attack in her home has been jailed.

Otis Walter Bell slashed RoseAnn Edwards across her neck with a hooked blade and then repeatedly taunted her saying: “You are going to die”.

Bell refused to let Ms Edwards call her family as she lay on the floor bleeding and begging for mercy.

Yesterday Bell, 61, was jailed for 12 years at Supreme Court for the assault that took place in Hamilton on January 5, this year.

In a harrowing victim impact statement that was read to the court Ms Edwards, 60, said her life had been changed for ever as a result of the attack.

She said: “It is miraculously by the grace of God that I have life and that I am here on earth,” Ms Edwards said.

“No description, no words, can ever, will ever, really paint or portray what I endured.

“In a flash, my life passed quickly, swiftly, radically changed me, a change that will haunt me and live with me always.

“Like a tsunami I have been altered emotionally, mentally, physically and professionally. I have been altered as an individual, as a person, altered as a mother and as a grandmother.”

Ms Edwards, who was in court for the sentencing, also revealed she had worn scarves or high neck shirts to cover the scars from the attack.

“My job, my civic duty, my social and recreational life have all been altered,” she added.

“There are a number of things that I cannot now do, even for myself on a daily basis, such as getting dressed.

“I have trouble managing, holding, manipulating and using my left hand. I have visited and continue to visit doctors on a regular basis.

“Physiotherapy is compulsory twice a week for the seeming interminable and excruciating pain I endure in my left arm and numbness in the lower left side of my face, with constant, sharp, darting pain.

“There can never be a final word on what I have endured and what I am continuing to endure. I can only find solace in the scriptures.”

Bell, who had not appeared before the courts for 24 years, had previously pleaded guilty to wounding Ms Edwards with intent to cause her grievous bodily harm. Yesterday, prosecutor Cindy Clarke told the court that Bell had come to Ms Edwards’s Angle Street home armed with two knives.

She added: “Ms Edwards had known the defendant for seven years. But they had not been intimate for the past three years.

“They remained in a close social relationship which she thought he understood.”

Ms Clarke said that during the attack Bell covered his victim’s mouth and nose and pushed her to the floor. She told the court that Ms Edwards believed she was going to die.

Ms Clarke added: “He told the victim: ‘I am going to kill you. You are not going to be able to disrespect me again. Where are your new fancy friends now? This is about your fame and fortune’.”

During yesterday’s sentencing hearing Bell apologised for his actions saying: “I am so sorry for what I have done to you RoseAnn and your family.

“What I have done is a great sin against God and all I can ask is for you to forgive me.

“I would also like to apologise to my family. I am very sorry for what I have done. I really care about RoseAnn and her family and am deeply sorry. “

His lawyer, Richard Horseman, suggested that his client had symptoms of a mental disorder at the time of the attack, although Ms Clarke maintained that a psychological assessment of Bell revealed he did not suffer from any psychological illness.

Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves described the knife attack as “cruel and inhumane” and ordered that Bell serve at least six years behind bars before he could be considered for release.

He added: “The slitting of a woman’s throat from side to side with an instrument of sharpness and shape as the one used by the defendant as if she was not human, but some other creature to be slaughtered in an abattoir, was extremely cruel and inhumane.

“To have aggravated this attack by the watching of her through her suffering with the taunting ‘you are going to die’ and with the prolonged refusal to let her obtain help despite her pleading was cruel behaviour of severe magnitude.

“I also note that he (Bell) had been behaving in a very jealous manner over the last years towards the complainant and persons with whom she had contact.”

Mr Justice Greaves added: “No apology or any amount of remorse can change the cruelty of this act.”