The conversation had been convivial with the mariner complimenting the landlady over the quality of her flower bedecked garden at her Southampton beerhouse before he ventured back into the tap room and politely asked her to fill his ginger beer bottle.

But Nigel Bruce's cheery countenance masked his true persona. He was a dangerous man who had only just been released from jail as Sarah Stevens was to shockingly discover from a hefty blow on the side of her neck.

Turning round in disbelief, she saw the sailor about to plunge a heavy butcher's knife into her. She could only defend herself with the bottle she was clasping and had her right hand slashed. In terror in front of her screaming children, she dashed to the front door where, desperately trying to ward off another blow, she had the tip of a finger sliced off.

Bursting outside, she begged two passers by for help. "For God's sake, protect me, There's a man inside who has cut my throat and stabbed me."

Shamefully they ignored her.

Bruce - also known as George Lane - then nonchalantly walked off up the road from the premises in Crown Street, Highfield, before disappearing out of sight at a corner. The blood spattered Stevens hailed the police and armed with a full description, PC Luck went off in pursuit of Bruce who he located two miles away at the Wide Lane gates between Swaythling and Eastleigh.

Bruce offered no resistance but when charged with attempted murder at Portswood police station, dismissed the allegation as one of mistaken identity. "Indeed! I think there has been some mistake."

Dr Robert Ives, who found the landlady lying on a sofa looking faint and pale, told jurors at the 1883 Hampshire, Wilts and Dorset Gaol Delivery - sessions restricted to defendants held in custody - she had cheated death, alluding to a neck wound half an inch long inflicted with a large knife.

"It is marvellous how it failed to sever the windpipe. Had it done so, this case would have been most serious. She also had a deep wound to the right hand, right down to the bone, severing the thumb nail and passing down to the thumb joints. On her left hand, there was a slight wound on the little finger which contained a small piece of knuckle chipped off and which I removed."

Luck told the court he retrieved from the blade from Bruce's inside breast pocket. "He then began talking in a rambling way all sorts of nonsense after he had been apprehended but in my opinion, he was not drunk."

Bruce fiercely disagreed. "I was under the influence of spirits at the time or should not have done it."

His statement to the magistrates taken at the committal proceedings was then read which suggested the knifing had been a case of mistaken identity. "I did not mean to stab her. I thought it was someone else."

The judge, Baron Huddleston, recalled Stevens who was sure Bruce had not been under the influence of drink but remarked of her ordeal: "He never said a word from the moment he attacked until he left the house."

Bruce made a short statement from the witness box. "I can only say what I have said before. I had no intention of murder as the knife never entered her."

Following a short retirement, jurors found the 25-year-old guilty before learning of his infamous past.

"As soon as you came out, you committed this diabolical act," the judge told him. " If you had severed her windpipe and taken her life, it would have been my duty to have left you with execution, but your offence in intention was quite as bad as if you had taken her life. The jury have very properly found you guilty of an attempt to murder her and the fact you had not put into effect the intent in your mind was only by accident."

When told he would be kept in penal servitude for 20 years, Bruce arrogantly replied: "I can do that."

After he had left the dock, Mr Tickell, who had been prosecuting, asked if the landlady was entitled to compensation. The judge regretfully replied he had no power to do so as such an award only applied to people active in apprehending a defendant. "I only wish I could as she has conducted herself with wonderful courage."