These images show a city worker creeping around a notorious red light district just moments before plunging a kitchen knife into a vice-girl's neck.
CCTV captured the moments leading up to Matthew Graham's attack. In a suit and tie and high on cannabis, the 29-year-old scoped the area for his victim before ambushing her.
After asking the 30-year-old vice-girl if she was 'interested in business', he told her to meet him under the bridge in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.
But, as she turned the corner, he hit her head against a wall before pulling out a long serrated kitchen knife which he plunged through her neck 'from one side to the other'.
Graham, of Royton, near Oldham, attacked the woman with such ferocity the handle of the knife snapped off while the blade remained lodged in her neck.
Passers-by intervened while Graham fled and the woman was taken to Manchester Royal Infirmary where the blade was eventually removed.
Amazingly despite the incident, she is set to make a full recovery following the attack at 8.30pm on May 8 last year. Inquiries revealed the attack had been triggered by Graham's abuse of cannabis.
At Manchester Crown Court he was hospitalised indefinitely under the Mental Health Act for the protection of the public after he pleaded guilty to attempted murder and possession of an offensive weapon.
The court heard Graham suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and often experienced 'violent fantasies and graphic imagery of hurting various people'.
He also experienced delusional concerns regarding his childhood and adoption, but his condition was made much worse by his use of cannabis around the time of the attack, it was said.
Prosecuting, Rob Hall said: "It is quite clear Mr Graham was struggling with his mental health and indeed he perhaps replaced his medication with cannabis which made the circumstances a lot worse than they might have been.
"The complainant was approached by Mr Graham who asked if she would be interested in business. She said she would be, so Graham told her to wait for a few minutes to join him in a nearby location under the footbridge.
"When she did he was violent to her, causing grazing to her head as it struck the wall, and as she responded Graham took out a serrated kitchen knife with a seven-and-a-half inch blade and put it through her neck from one side to the other. Such was the force, the handle snapped off and Graham then ran from the scene."
Graham, who had one previous conviction for driving a van while boozed up in the same red light district 10 years ago, was snared when police linked him to the knife using DNA evidence.
In a victim statement, the victim said: "I have already experienced tragedy in my life and have been left feeling very vulnerable."
Psychiatrist Dr Andrew Haddock said Graham was 'slowly responding' to treatment for his schizophrenia at the medium-secure Edenfield mental health unit in Prestwich, Manchester.
"There is a lack of antecedents but the index offence is of a very grave nature and followed a period where he had been non-compliant with psychiatric care," he said. "I am concerned about a relapse."
In mitigation, Mark Fireman said Graham was 'deeply remorseful' for what he did. "He knows he requires treatment and wishes to become well as soon as possible," he added.
Sentencing, Judge Michael Henshell said: "I know that you are remorseful for what you did. You now realise that it was a terrible thing you committed and the harm caused could have been so much greater.
"The woman was fortunate to survive. I am quite satisfied you are suffering from paranoid schizophrenia to a large extent. The illness has been difficult to treat but you are now responding slowly. I am also satisfied that the disorder is of a nature and degree which makes it appropriate for you to be detained in hospital."
At the time of the stabbing police said it an "unprovoked and vicious attack" and said it was lucky the woman survived.
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