TWO brothers who carried out a baseball bat attack which ended with a man fighting for his life escaped a jail sentence when they appeared at Preston Crown Court.

Judge Reginald Lockett handed out an 18-month probation order after Stephen and Eamon Mahoney pleaded guilty to unlawfully wounding Gerald McCullion.

The judge described the case as exceptional after hearing the Blackburn men would live the rest of their life in fear of reprisals.

Mr McCullion, 48, of Monmouth Road, Blackburn, underwent brain surgery after he was attacked last June.

And his angry family say he has been left crippled by the attack, which came after an afternoon of violence.

Stephen Mahoney, 26, of Lytham Road, and Eamon, 22, of Morecambe Road, were given 18 months probation, 100 hours community service and ordered to pay £250 court costs. They had both denied the offence.

Two further charges of wounding with intent and assault occasioning actual bodily harm were withdrawn.

The court heard Mr McCullion mistakenly believed the Mahoney family were to give evidence in a murder trial involving his nephew.

David Turner, defending, said Mr McCullion had brought three "Scottish gangsters" from Glasgow to intimidate witnesses in the Kevin Sudall murder trial.

Kevin was kicked to death outside a Blackburn nightclub and three men were jailed for life for his murder.

Mr Turner said: "Mr McCullion was a violent bully. He was aggressive and drunk. He was walking around in a coat which had a special pocket sewn into it to carry an axe." Mr Turner claimed Mr McCullion's aim was to have the father of Stephen and Eamon Mahoney beaten up. When his plan failed he approached the family home with the axe and the two brothers protected their father.

Since the incident he claimed the family had been sent bullets through the post and people in Blackburn had been threatened.

Judge Lockett said: "You acted to protect your family but there is no doubt you both overreacted."

The distraught 17-year-old daughter of Gerald McCullion today blasted the sentence. Sarah Jane McCullion said: "My father almost died because of what they did and all they got was probation.

"He can no longer walk properly, his memory has gone and his speech has been badly affected. He used to be full of life and he is no longer the same person. My father is the sort of person who would do anything for anybody and he has never raised a hand to me or my mother.

"The whole family is devastated, we just cannot come terms with what has happened to him."

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