THE victim of a ‘ferocious’ revenge attack thought he was going to die when a Burnley man threatened to bring a paving slab crashing down on his head, a court heard.

Nathan Rosser had chased David Binns across the town’s Brunshaw estate before trying to strangle him and smashing a terracotta plant pot over his head, Burnley Crown Court was told.

But when Rosser loomed above Mr Binns with a paving slab and asked him: “Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you right now?’, he feared he may be killed.

The slab crashed to the floor just inches from the victim's head, as he managed to squirm out of the way, prosecutors said.

But Rosser then drove a plastic garden chair into his face.

When police arrived shortly afterwards, Mr Binns’ face was ‘covered in blood’ and he was slipping in and out of consciousness. One neighbour feared that Mr Binns may be killed in the ferocious attack.

Prosecutor Stephen Parker said the attack was carried out in revenge for Mr Binns giving a statement to police following another incident last year.

Then Rosser, 37, of Brunshaw Avenue had come out of his home wielding an axe and a golf club, allegedly after Mr Binns had made some off-colour remarks to his daughter. He was given a 10-month suspended prison sentence.

Now after the latest attack, which saw him plead guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent, robbery and cannabis, Rosser has been jailed for six years.

Mr Parker said that Mr Binns insisted that after the earlier court case he went out of his way to avoid Rosser. But on February 25 the pair came face-to-face on Brunshaw Avenue and Rosser said he was going to do some ‘serious damage’ to Mr Binns once his suspended prison sentence was over.

He shoved the victim, who fell over a wall to the ground. Rosser followed him down the street, issuing further threats against others he believed were responsible for giving evidence against him following the earlier incident. Later that same day, around 10.30pm, Mr Binns was in the Brunshaw Road area when he was confronted by Rosser again.

He tried to run away to a friend’s house nearby, but fumbled his key and was forced to flee across neighbouring gardens. But Rosser eventually caught up with him and the violence began.

Rosser even picked up a carrier bag belonging to the victim, full of beer cans, and swung it repeatedly at Mr Binns’ head, causing him to see stars.