A YORK man's seaside trip with his girlfriend ended with a stranger breaking his skull with an axe, a jury heard.

Philip Holdsworth, 23, told Leeds Crown Court that he felt suicidal after an argument with his fiance Susan Martin left him stranded at night in Scarborough without a bed, and some hours before the first public transport home to York.

As he wandered the resort's streets in the early hours of December 29, stranger Arthur McLauchlan, 22, offered to take him to his home for a cup of coffee and a warm place to wait for the first train.

"I thought it was safer to go off with him rather than stay on the streets where there are loads of drugs," Mr Holdsworth told the jury.

But after they had been at McLauchlan's family home for a short time, the Scarborough man suggested they take a walk to dig up some drugs, the York man alleged in the witness box.

McLauchlan took Mr Holdsworth to a wooded area known as Woodlands Ravine and crouched down. The York man said he walked slightly past him.

Mr Holdsworth said: "Next thing I knew, it was like bang on the back of the head. I was on the floor. The blows from behind felt like punches."

He alleged that McLauchlan accused him of "touching up" the Scarborough man's sister. When he put his hands to his head they were covered in blood and blood was pouring down, said Mr Holdsworth.

He did not know he had been hit by an axe until doctors told him at hospital.

McLauchlan, of Rothbury Street, Scarborough, denies attempted murder.

Richard Mansell, opening the prosecution, said Mr Holdsworth suffered a fractured skull as he was hit twice, leaving two gashes in his head.

The barrister alleged that the blows were so forceful, the axe broke on the second blow.

Mr Holdsworth alleged that McLauchlan had mentioned drugs to him before they reached his home, and that at Rothbury Street the Scarborough man took something from a cupboard. The prosecution alleges that was the axe.

Mr Holdsworth denied defence suggestions that he had taken the axe from the cupboard and that McLauchlan had taken him for a walk so he could challenge him about his actions without awakening the rest of his family.

He also denied that a third person was present at Woodlands Ravine.

The trial continues.

Updated: 10:48 Wednesday, June 25, 2003