Las Americas Tenerife: Brit 'slashes girlfriend’s neck with scalpel in front of their baby son' minutes after boarding sunset cruise

Thomas Gilpin, 22, paid £600 to take Eleanor Gilbert and their six-month-old son on the private trip on a boat called No Worries. But just five minutes after setting sail, he placed his arm around her shoulders and without warning sliced her neck open with the razor-sharp blade, she told police.

As blood poured down her front from the wound, which missed her jugular by millimetres, he is also suspected of then attacking the captain and the first mate with the blade. They wrestled him to the ground as they struggled to turn the boat around to head back to port.

According to The Sun, all three victims were rushed to the hospital, where Eleanor, 22, needed 33 stitches in the gaping 5in wound. Gilpin, of Leeds, is in custody in Tenerife, where a judge is investigating the case as a domestic violence attack.

He is being probed for subjecting Eleanor to controlling behaviour in an abusive relationship and attempting to murder her. The warehouse worker is also accused of assaulting the captain, who was also stabbed in the neck, and the first mate.

The attack happened during a holiday in Las Americas with 15 of Eleanor’s relatives in what is an annual family tradition, The Sun reports. The couple’s two-year relationship was rocky with Eleanor telling friends how he would shout at her at times and she feared he was isolating her from her friends.

But she had no warning of what was about to happen. The plan was for them to sail around the island, eat tapas prepared by the crew and then go for a swim before watching the sunset as they returned to port.

Gilpin was remanded in jail by a judge at a hearing after the attack, which happened in December last year. He remains in custody while the judge continues the investigation.

The case has been referred to a specialist court dealing with violence against women. A spokesman for the National Police in Tenerife said: "We handed the suspect over to the courts following his detention and this is now a matter for the judiciary.”