THE victim of a hammer attack believed he was going to die as he was set on by two men in a pre-planned grudge attack.

John Wilson and his friend Ian Kilpin armed themselves with the claw hammer and a sock filled with stones before they ambushed Nicholas Reeves at a house where he was working in Newton Abbot.

He suffered an injury to his arm as he fended off a blow from Wilson, who was carrying the hammer and then fled as he was pelted with small paving stones by the pair.

Mr Reeves had previously lived in the same house as Wilson and there had been an acrimonious exchange of texts after he moved out which culminated in threats and led to the violence.

Wilson, aged 45, of Highweek Road, Newton Abbot, and Kilpin, aged 41, of Newton Road, Kingsteignton, admitted assault causing actual bodily harm and were jailed for 12 and 11 months respectively, both suspended for 18 months.

Wilson was ordered to do 120 hours unpaid community work and 20 days of rehabilitation activities and Kilpin was ordered to do 35 days of rehabilitation activities by Judge Timothy Rose at Exeter Crown Court.

He told them: ‘It is depressing that you are both men in your 40s who were behaving like children. That is not to diminish the seriousness of this offence but to note that you were incapable of knowing better.

‘The biggest feature of this case is that you swung a hammer at his face, even if it did not hit him there. It was premeditated, you were accompanied, and you took a weapon.’

The Judge made a two-year restraining order banning both men from any contact with the victim or from going to his home in Newton Abbot.

Mr Greg Richardson, prosecuting, said the attack happened at 4 pm on September 14 last year when the two men were driven by a third person to a house where they knew Mr Reeves was working.

CCTV showed Wilson swinging a hammer at his head and Kilpin filling a sock full of stones to use as a weapon. Mr Reeves blocked to hammer blow and fled but both men threw pieced of paving at him, which missed.

Mr Reeves told police the men had both told him they were going to kill him and he feared for his life. In the event, he suffered only bruising and grazing to his arm.

He wrote a victim personal statement in which he said Wilson had shown no remorse and had been bragging about what he had done.

Mr William Parkhill, for Wilson, said there was a background of messages between the two men which included threats. He said there has been no further trouble in more than a year since the incident.

Mr Lee Bremridge, for Kilpin, asked the Judge to follow the recommendations of a probation report that suggested he would benefit from work on a range of issues.