A FATHER-OF-FOUR has told a court he was attacked with a machete on the doorstep of his home.

Gary Yates received three serious wounds to his arm, which was also broken when he was confronted by two men and accused of assault.

But the jury was told one of the men accused of assaulting him told police Mr Yates was armed with the machete, not them.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard Mr Yates, 45, had answered the door of his home, at Douglas Grove, Witham, on September 20 last year to be confronted by one man.

Another man approached and allegedly handed a machete to the first man before Mr Yates was attacked.

Mr Yates responded by picking up a scythe and hitting the armed man with it before the two men ran off with Mr Yates in pursuit in a van.

The prosecution says the men responsible were Terrence Spears, 39, of Milton Road, Witham, and Terence Allen, 46, formerly of Cressing Road, Witham but now of Stanstrete Field, Braintree.

They both deny wounding Mr Yates with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm.

Christopher Kerr, prosecuting, said Mr Yates knew both men and had been married to Spears’s sister, who later married Allen.

There had been a row between Allen’s daughter Leah and Mr Yates’s daughter. Mr Yates broke up the argument and was later accused of hitting Allen’s daughter.

That afternoon, Mr Yates said he was at home cooking a meal when he saw Allen and Spears shouting outside and Allen told Mr Yates: “You’re going to get it now.”

Allen is alleged to have then walked up the garden path and handed a machete to Spears.

Mr Yates said: “He swung the machete at my head.

“I put my arm up to protect my head and the machete hit me on the left arm just above the wrist.

“He swung it again and it hit me on the arm further up, and he swung it again and it hit me near the elbow.”

Mr Yates said he then picked up a scythe he kept by the front door to prune a plant and “whacked” Spears with it.

Spears told police he was not armed and said Mr Yates had come out of his house carrying a knife, and in the row that followed, Mr Yates had been cut by the knife.

He said Mr Yates had also cut himself to make things look worse.

In a statement, Allen told police Mr Yates was armed with the machete and started fighting with Spears. He said he ran off and did not see what happened next.

The trial continues.