A NEIGHBOUR has told a jury how he found the alleged victim of a samurai sword attack sprawled on the floor with his face covered in blood and cuts.

John French, of Kingsway West, Acomb, York, said he went to Steven Johnson's upstairs flat near his home after seeing two pools of blood at the bottom of the entry stairwell.

He said: "You couldn't see one bit of his face - it was all-over blood," he said.

"I knew something serious had happened."

The jury at York Crown Court sitting in Teesside heard medical evidence that Mr Johnson had cuts to his head and a cut into the muscle on one arm.

They also heard of a trail of blood up the stairs and that a forensic scientist found Mr Johnson's blood on the trousers of demolition foreman Stephen David Hammond and on a samurai sword.

Hammond told the jury he hid the sword and a bloodstained bath mat in a bed because he was afraid of men who had made death threats against him and his family.

The jury heard police found the items in a nearby flat which he and builder John O'Callaghan were visiting.

Hammond, 49, of Redbourn, and O'Callaghan, 39, both from Hertfordshire, deny wounding with intent.

Giving evidence Hammond claimed he had heard three men, one armed with a butcher's knife, fighting with Mr Johnson in the stairwell.

When he asked them to be quiet because his grandson was sleeping, one of the group made the death threats.

Hammond called O'Callaghan who came out with a samurai sword and the group left. He had then gone out to try to help Mr Johnson.

He denied either he or O'Callaghan had attacked the Acomb man.

The trial continues.

Updated: 09:50 Thursday, February 24, 2005