Ellis Dismore attempted to murder the teenager after she broke off her online relationship with him after he posted sexually explicit images of her on social media.
The 24-year-old was caught on CCTV and a car’s dashcam pursuing the youngster after their paths crossed as she made her way home from school.
The Middlesbrough teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, suffered multiple stab wounds to her back and chest.
Dismore was branded a ‘dangerous offender’ as he was sentenced to 43 years in total.
Ellis Dismore chasing the girl along the street as he stabs her (Image: Cleveland Police)
Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, said Dismore used the alias of James Wilson as he posed as a teenage boy to strike up the online conversation with his victim before repeatedly stabbing her when she rejected him.
During the trial, jurors heard how Dismore bombarded the girl with messages demanding that she unblock him on social media before making vile threats to rape and murder the girl, he added.
Jurors were played three voice notes, which were sent to the alleged victim’s mother, where a male voice can be made making ‘abhorrent’ threats to rape and murder the teenager, who he had never actually met.
Shocking CCTV footage showed Dismore speak to the girl who immediately recognised the voice and started to run away screaming for help.
The defendant is seen to be chasing her down and stabbing her as he was closing in for the kill before a motorist bravely intervened in the attack.
In a victim personal statement, the teenager spoke of the devastating impact the attempted murder continues to have on her life.
She said: “My mother received some voice notes – they were terrifying – threatening to kill me by stabbing me through the heart. Things were getting worse for me but the worst was yet to come.
“Ellis Dismore tried to kill me. I was chased and stabbed on my way home from school. The attack was horrific. I felt like I was going to be killed in broad daylight.
“I ran for my life but luckily someone stopped their car and let me in, if not for her Ellis Dismore would have killed me.”
Ellis Dismore stalking the girl before launching his brutal attack (Image: Cleveland Police)
The knife attack happened at around 3pm on Thursday, June 22, 2023, on Premier Road, Middlesbrough, and she was taken to James Cook University Hospital for treatment after she suffered a punctured lung.
Following his conviction for attempted murder, possession of a blade, and multiple child sex offences, Dismore faced a second trial after several other young people were traced who had previously been harassed by him.
Ellis Dismore shopping for knives in Wilkos (Image: Cleveland Police)
Dismore targeted the victims and he would groom and stalk his victims, talking them into sending him indecent images of themselves.
Then, he blackmailed the girls, threatening to share these images and to harm or rape the girls if they refused to comply with his wishes. He also attempted to arrange to meet up with them to engage in sexual activity and made further threats towards them if they refused.
He was found guilty of six charges of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity; two charges of stalking causing fear of violence or serious harm/distress; one charge of making indecent photographs of a child – he previously pleaded guilty to another count of making indecent images of a child; four charges of arranging/facilitating the commission of a child sexual offence; sending an indecent electronic communication with intent to cause stress/anxiety; causing a child to watch a sexual act.
Paul Abrahams, mitigating, said his client was relatively young at the time of the offences and was of previous good character.
He added: “He is relatively young but inevitably he is going to have a very substantial sentence.”
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Judge Timothy Stead, sitting at Teesside Crown Court, jailed Dismore for a total of 43 years – 38 in prison and five years on extended licence – as he branded him a ‘dangerous’ offender for the level of his ‘insidious’ communications.
He said: “She tried to speed up and move away from you but she wasn’t successful you came up behind her and stabbed her repeatedly in the back.
“She suffered multiple stab injuries, such that her life was not merely threatened, in the circumstances she can count herself very fortunate indeed that she wasn’t murdered which was your intention.
“That her life was in peril cannot be doubted and it is the enormous credit to a member of the public that she came to the rescue, shouted at you and momentarily caused you to pause and allow your victim to get partially into her rescuer’s car.
“I have no doubt that if it hadn’t been for the actions of that woman this would very likely have been an offence of murder which you had intended.”
Dismore, of no fixed abode but formerly from Middlesbrough, was also made subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order, told he would sign on the sex offenders’ register for life and was issued with an indefinite restraining order to protect all nine of his victims.