HE was a neighbour and friend who would regularly socialise with the family next door in Windale before he indecently assaulted the couple's two teenage daughters.
And then in the early hours of March 8, 2019, Jason Lanesbury, also known as Jason Eric McGovern, broke into the home and repeatedly stabbed the girls' father in the face and chest while he lay in bed.
Lanesbury, 37, of Valentine, appeared in Newcastle Local Court via audio visual link from jail this week where he pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent and break and enter and inflict grievous bodily harm after the DPP withdrew a charge of attempted murder.
Two charges of breaching an apprehended violence order relating to the two teenage girls will be taken into account when Lanesbury is sentenced in Newcastle District Court later this year.
The Newcastle Herald can reveal Lanesbury will also face a sentence hearing in June after pleading guilty to four counts of indecently assaulting a person under the age of 16, in relation to the attacks on the teenage girls that brought an end to the friendship and triggered the frenzied home invasion stabbing.
Lanesbury, a truck driver, jumped a fence at the rear of the property about 1.40am on March 8, 2019, and then used a knife to cut through a fly screen at the back of the home.
He walked through the home, entered the bedroom of a man, closed the door behind him and then turned on the light and stabbed the man three times in the chest and once in the face.
The victim put his arms up to protect himself and started screaming, waking a woman and three children inside the home.
The woman told police she opened the man's bedroom door and saw him lying on his back, his arms up over his head and a large amount of blood on the bed.
Lanesbury fled the home on foot and disappeared. When police arrived a short time later they asked the man who was responsible for the attack and he replied "Jason McGovern".
The man was taken to John Hunter Hospital by ambulance in a critical condition suffering multiple stab wounds to his face and chest.
Police said at the time that he lost a "considerable amount of blood" and required an urgent blood transfusion before undergoing surgery.
Detectives began searching for Lanesbury and were at his workplace at Adamstown about 8.20am on the morning of the stabbing when he arrived in a car.
Lanesbury has been behind bars ever since, but did apply for bail in July with his solicitor claiming the only evidence against him comes from a family who "has reason to dislike him".
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