A soldier stabbed outside a barracks paid tribute today to his ‘hero’ wife for fighting off a knifeman who tried to ‘cut my head off like Lee Rigby‘.

Lieutenant Colonel Mark Teeton fought back tears as he recalled how a knife-wielding stranger, fixated with the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby, leapt on him outside a barracks, stabbing him a dozen times, ‘carving’ at his face and neck.

Army reject Anthony Esan, 24, lay in wait outside Brompton Barracks, armed with a couple of kitchen blades after watching TikTok videos about knife attacks, including the 2013 killing of the 25-year-old soldier near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich.

The 24-year-old Nigerian had previously been rejected from the Army several times due to his ‘psychotic disorder’ and eczema.

Maidstone Crown Court heard today how the cannabis addict was discharged from the care of a mental health intervention service to a ‘low intensity support team’ just days after he bought a pack of knives from Argos in preparation for the attack.

He targeted Lieutenant Colonel Teeton at random days later on July 23, 2024, pouncing on the first soldier in uniform he encountered in a ‘vicious and deliberate’ attack.

The victim was just 100 metres from the barracks in Gillingham, Kent, on his way home when Esan asked if he could use his phone after his moped broke down.

As the Lieutenant Colonel stopped to help, Esan suddenly lunged forward stabbing the victim a dozen times in the neck, abdomen, chest and groin, causing internal damage to his voice box, right lung, liver and abdominal wall.

The 47-year-old only survived after his wife Eileen, who happened to be in the back garden of their home just yards away, heard shouting and ran to her husband’s aid.

Today she told the court how she rushed to help a soldier lying on the ground, pushing off the knifeman only to realise in ‘a wave of terror’ that it was her husband.

In a victim impact statement, Mrs Teeton said: ‘I watched horrified by his continued savage attack, and realised it was my husband on the ground and he was carving at his face and neck.’

She added: ‘That wasn’t a soldier, that was Mark, my husband, a father, a brother, an uncle, a work colleague, a friend to so many people that almost lost him but for the bravery and dedication of so many heroes who saved his life.

‘We will live with this forever, the scars will fade but your attack will never be erased.’

A doorbell recording captured her piercing screams as she fought with the knifeman crying: ‘Get off him. What are you doing? What the f*** are you doing?’

Esan locked eyes with Mrs Teeton before running off.

As her husband lay bleeding, Mrs Teeton tried to shield her eldest daughter when she arrived at the scene a short time later.

Prosecutor Alison Morgan, KC, said it was a miracle that the Lieutenant Colonel survived.

The victim, a serving officer in the British Army for 26 years who had been on tours of Iraq and Afghanistan, later asked his wife in hospital: ‘Do the people at work know what he tried to do to me – cut my head off! Like Lee Rigby.’

Fighting back tears, he said today: ‘I still relive the incident in my mind; I actually think it is a blessing that I was unconscious for much of it as it means that I am unable to remember a large part of being attacked.

‘I don’t think I will truly appreciate the courage shown by my wife and strangers to thwart the attack and then the quick thinking of an array of people that helped save my life.

‘They are all heroes, and I am forever in gratitude to them.’

He added: ‘I did not imagine for a moment that I would be attacked in such a way on the streets of Britain, in a place where I felt safe.’

Esan fled the scene on his moped, leaving behind a shoe and the two kitchen knives.

When police caught the suspect at his home in Rochester, less than an hour later, he was ranting about the devil with his hands covered in blood.

Esan, who moved to London from Nigeria in 2009, had a history of mental health issues and had previously received a diagnosis of psychosis after experiencing hallucinations.

After he was charged with attempted murder, Esan asked: ‘Am I free now?’

He admitted attempted murder and possession of two bladed weapons on the first day of his trial.

Esan will be sentenced later this week.