A MAN who stabbed Coronation Street star John Savident in the neck after meeting him at a gay bar has been jailed for seven years.

Reporting restrictions were today lifted after Savident's attacker, Michael Smith, 30, was convicted of an unrelated robbery at Manchester Crown Court.

Smith, of Ashton-under-Lyne, was jailed in September after being convicted of attacking Savident, who is better known as Weatherfield's butcher Fred Elliott, in the early hours of December 1, 2000.

He had overpowered the burly actor and held a knife to his throat as he threatened him: "I bet you have never met a schizo before."