“The Supreme Court has concluded that it has been shown that the man intended to commit a very serious offence, but not to kill his girlfriend,” the court said in a statement, according to TT news agency.

The man, who stabbed his girlfriend in the back with a “newly manufactured” sword as she was lying in bed, had originally been sentenced by the district court to eight years in prison for attempted murder.

But the Supreme Court reduced the sentence to five years in prison, finding the 31-year-old man guilty of aggravated assault, and not attempted murder.

The man’s girlfriend was stabbed several times with the sword and was seriously injured in the attack, having been rushed to hospital for emergency treatment.

Following the attack, the man claimed he had been under the influence of alcohol and told authorities he had no recollection of the incident.

While neither the district court and court of appeal found that the man had committed the attack with intent, the Supreme Court found that there was no need to prove the man’s intent as he got drunk by his own volition.

The 31-year-old was arrested in April last year near his home in Hörnefors, northern Sweden, and it was thanks to a neighbour’s alert to police that the man was quickly apprehended.