A WOMAN carjacked at knifepoint by a career criminal has questioned a judge for letting him off jail just a week before the terrifying attack.

Shaun Lee was last month jailed for six years for the incident in Boscombe on March 22, which also saw him rob the Iceland supermarket in Westbourne and write off the convertible Mazda MX5 by trying to force his way through traffic.

One week before the incident a judge handed Lee - who has been in and out of prison for most of his adult life - a second chance by deferring sentencing on him for series of thefts and a burglary.

Ms Anstee said had Lee been jailed at this time she would have been spared the traumatic episode, which has left a psychological toll.

“It does keep me awake at night and it does anger me to think that the judge put off sentencing him a week before it happened,” she said.

“I have no idea why he wasn’t behind bars. Why the judge deferred sentencing is beyond me.

“They say Lee did what he did to me as a cry for help but you need to protect the public.

“If the judge had not done that then I would not have had to go through my ordeal.”

Ms Anstee, a 51-year-old care co-ordinator, was sat in her ‘dream’ car - bought as a 50th birthday present - when crazed Lee pounced.

As she started up the engine, Lee threatened her with a knife. She began to scream, so he told her to “get out of the f***ing car” before dragging her out and speeding away.

After crashing into parked vehicles at the end of the spree, police found him hiding in a nearby garden.

Lee had been imprisoned for four years in 2009 for attempting to rob an off-licence with a hammer, an offence committed while on licence from a 46-month prison sentence for another attempted robbery.

Ms Anstee, of Moordown, said: “I’m a positive person who tries to see the good in everyone but I had to go to the sentencing to see him get justice.

“I didn’t see any good in him and I hate the fact he’s made me feel that way.

“I know he is in prison but he will be getting three good meals a day and I’m suffering. I don’t even feel safe parking my car at the supermarket.”