A FORMER Huddersfield student has been locked up for a terrifying knife attack on an elderly couple.

Jonathan McCann, 26, attacked the grandparents of a former girlfriend in their home, after arming himself with two kitchen knives and a baseball bat.

And it also emerged that it was not the first jail sentence for the former University of Huddersfield student.

McCann, who has now been sentenced to 11 years, was jailed previously for an IRA bomb hoax.

He was studying at the University’s Queensgate campus when he made a series of phone calls about an alleged bomb in his home town of St Helens, Merseyside.

The victims of his knife attack were Kenneth Greenall, 67, and his wife Barbara, 65, who are the grandparents of McCann’s former girlfriend Laura Mooney.

McCann was convicted of two charges of attempted murder.

Liverpool Crown Court was told how Mr Greenall had been in bed when he heard the desperate screams of his wife downstairs.

He saw McCann kneeling over Barbara hitting her in a stabbing motion. She warned him that McCann had a knife.

Showing great courage, he grabbed hold of McCann.

He felt blood pouring down his face, as the attacker said: "Do you believe in Jesus Christ, because you’re going to die and mine will be the last face you see."

Mr Greenall, who managed to restrain him until police arrived, suffered two deep facial stab wounds.

One stretched from his right ear to the back of his head and one was so deep that it punctured his mouth.

His wife, who still suffers psychologically from the terrifying attack, was left with a broken wrist, slashed tendons, nerves and an artery. She also suffered wounds to her chest.

McCann, who had a previous conviction for making a bomb hoax, claimed to have no recollection of the attack.

Jailing McCann, the Recorder of Liverpool Judge Henry Globe described the frenzied assault as "pre-meditated", branding McCann "a significant threat to the public".

He added: "I am considerably concerned about your behaviour if you were to be automatically released after 11 years. If you are released it will be on licence for the rest of your life."

Psychological reports showed that McCann was sane but had battled depression.

It was in January 2006 that McCann claimed to be an IRA terrorist who had planted a 200lb bomb near a St Helens cinema.

He was jailed for nine months for four bomb hoaxes, which sparked high-profile police operations.

During drunken calls to police McCann, who was then a student at Huddersfield, claimed he was from the IRA and there were bombs planted near the cinema and in the town’s Asda supermarket car park.