JASON STEWARD will never forget the image of Katherina Dyrova cowering as her partner Zabi Tahery repeatedly stabbed her.

Warrant Officer First Class Steward was the man who stepped in to save the life of Ms Dyrova and last night he spoke publicly for the first time about the horrific attack in July last year.

He said his military training took over as he disarmed Tahery, who had flown into a violent rage and knifed Ms Dyrova seven times.

Without his bravery, Katherina Dyrova would almost certainly be dead.

WO Steward recalled the moments his military training helped him disarm Tahery, who had flown into a violent rage and knifed Ms Dyrova seven times in Didcot in July last year.

WO Steward, of County Durham, who was visiting friends in the town at the time of the attack, was commended for his bravery by Thames Valley Police chief constable Sara Thornton last month.

The 39-year-old, who serves with 9 Regiment of the Army Air Corps, based in North Yorkshire, recalled: “We were sitting in the garden having a barbecue with some friends we had met on holiday and we heard this screaming.

“I remember saying to my friend, someone must have burned the toast!

“But the screaming kept on going. It was very loud and unnerving.”

WO Steward looked over the fence and saw two women, Tahery’s mother-in-law and her daughter Katherina, being chased in Campion Hall Drive by Tahery, carrying a 10-inch kitchen knife.

“I dropped my can and ran out of the garden. I saw him overtake the older woman and chase the other one into a neighbour’s house.

“You could tell he was quite intent on getting her.

“When I got to the house, he was at the base of the stairs on top of her and I could see him stabbing the knife into her.

“There was no blood – I think because he was stabbing her through clothes and the blood might have been wiped off.”

WO Steward, a former paratrooper, grabbed Tahery’s hand and, with his other hand around his neck, snatched the knife from him.

He said: “I held him in an armlock and had my knee in the back of his neck so he couldn't move at all.

“He didn’t say a thing. A neighbour brought masking tape and I taped his hands behind his back, then taped his ankles and his knees.”

Refusing to be labelled a hero, WO Steward added: “I spent 15 years in the Parachute Regiment. We were trained how to do prisoner handling.”

Tahery, from Afghanistan, was found hanging in his cell at Winchester Prison in January after being jailed indefinitely.