Nathan Meenan, of Godfrey Drive, Kirk Hallam, stabbed Maxine Foyle in the arm, shoulder and face after entering her Loscoe Road home on October 28 last year and finding her asleep on the sofa.

He also admitted assaulting another woman, Lisa Green, and stealing her phone earlier in the day and aggravated burglary at the home of Lyndsey Laurenson in her Loscoe Road home where he was found by the police.

At the time Maxine's husband John said: "My wife was screaming out she was smothered in blood. There was blood everywhere all over her and the duvet and the walls.

"I did not know what to think. I flipped. Even now I can't really relate to what went on. It was like a scene from a horror film. It was a bloodbath with my wife just slumped on the floor."

Not guilty pleas to attempted murder, two further counts of stealing mobile phones and making a threat to kill were accepted by the court.

The case was adjourned while psychiatric reports are prepared. Meenan, 23, is expected to be sentenced in June.