A convicted child killer who tried to murder his wife in the street was given a life sentence at The Old Bailey last Thursday (05).

Errol Alexander, 47, told 41-year-old wife Dorothy 'it's too late' as she begged for mercy in front of horrified neighbours at their home in Ealing.

She managed to stagger away but was taken to hospital and treated for knife wounds to her face, neck and arms.

Alexander had already served four years for the manslaughter of another partner's two-year-old son by shaking him to death.

Judge Richard Hayward passed an indeterminate prison sentence for public protection, ordering Alexander serve at least six years before being considered for parole.

He said: "You are a dangerous man, particularly when challenged in a domestic situation, and your drinking and use of drugs makes you more dangerous."

A week before the knife attack in July last year, Alexander walked out of the couple's Ealing home after accusing his wife of having an affair.

He confronted her outside her sister's home in Tottenham as she tried to make her way to work.

He chased her onto a tube train and sat opposite her on a crowded carriage, shouting "whore, slut, bitch" as she tried to ignore him.

Mrs Alexander got out at Oxford Circus and tried to get to the barriers, only for her husband to grab her collar and scream:"Why did you do it?

London Underground staff eventually managed to restrain him before police were called.

On the afternoon of July 10, Alexander again attacked his wife when she and her sister went to the couple's old flat in Gurnell Grove, Ealing, to collect her clothes.

Alexander pulled a knife from his trousers and lunged at his wife.

She said: "Errol grabbed me in the shoulder of my jacket, then he said: 'I will kill you. Blood Claht."

"He stepped past my sister and he slashed my neck. I was begging him: "Please don't kill me, I'm coming back to you. Please don't kill me."

"He replied to me: 'It's too late.'

Alexander fled but was arrested in Folkestone, Kent on August 13 on a coach bound for the Czech Republic. He had a ticket to Nuremberg in Germany.

He denied attempted murder, common assault and making a threat to kill but admitted possession of a knife.

Alexander was convicted of attempting to murder his wife by a majority verdict of 10 to two.

He was also convicted of a common assault on his wife a week earlier in Oxford Street but cleared of making threats to kill.

His last conviction was in 1997 when he robbed a man of £12,000 in a Turkish bank by threatening him with a hammer.

Alexander also has convictions dating back to the early 1970s for offences including burglary and handling stolen goods.

.