A man was jailed after he attacked his neighbours with a samurai sword during a drunken rampage. Dean Brown, 42, went after Jennifer Robinson, 34, her ex-partner Lance Buchanan, 36, and another man after a row in October last year.
Footage shows him waving a long blade and a metal pole around aggressively on a street in Somerton, Somerset. A court heard that Dean went on to brutally attack two victims, battering both to the ground in a sickening show of violence.
Jennifer, who was knocked out, later described the ordeal as something "you would watch in a horror film" and says she thought she would die. Dean was jailed for 25 months earlier this month after pleading guilty to GBH, criminal damage and making threats with a blade.
But his partner Jodie Brown, 24, who was also involved in the attack, remains at large after failing to turn up for sentencing.
She also pleaded guilty to GBH. Jennifer was left with a broken nose and needed staples in her head, after the row which apparently started when Brown confronted her about an incident involving their children.
A court heard that the violence started after a row involving children escalated, with Jodie throwing some 20 punches at Jennifer. A male neighbour tried to intervene, which prompted Dean to arrive armed with his weapons.
Jennifer then called police and her ex-partner Lance, with the latter arriving an hour later on his motorbike, Somerset Live reports. Dean then went after him, raining down blows and forcing him to go down and try and protect himself in the foetal position after his helmet was dislodged.
The male defendant also attacked Jennifer, it was said, pushing her into a wall and knocking her out with one of his weapons. Describing the attack in her victim impact statement, she said: "I used to think the events that happened that day were just something you would watch in a horror film.
"I never thought I would be faced with anyone capable of such utter depravity or would commit such a wicked and heinous act. I get flashbacks of the weapons being thrashed around in the air, the sound of them hitting Lance’s helmet over and over."
And, reliving the incident recently, the mum-of-three added: "Everything was fine while I was cooking Sunday dinner for some friend.
"Then a woman was pounding on my door shouting about shoes. I didn't know what she was on about but I just kept apologising because she and her partner were really drunk and very scary.
"When we couldn't find her daughter's missing shoes she started screaming and pummelling me and later Dean came out with a sword - I was terrified. I thought they were going to kill Lance, then I felt a thump and heard this ringing sound.
"It was the oddest sensation, a really high-pitched ringing, like I'd gone deaf, and everything was spinning. It was like I'd been put in a spinning chair in slow motion.
"That was the last thing I remember before I woke up on the road with blood all over me and all around me."
Lance later told her the last thing he remembered before the emergency services arrived was seeing her on lying on the roadside and yelling "you've f***ing killed her". Jennifer was given a four-inch slash on her head from the sword, and Lance suffered severe wounds on his hands, leg and head.
But even now her sword-wielding attacker is locked up, the incident has scarred she and her family. She said: "I had staples in my head from where he hit me with the sword, and my ex-partner needed a while off work because his hands were so wounded.
"I no longer leave the house because of it. I'm treated for PTSD and my son is having emotional support at school to help him through what happened. I just wish Dean got more time in prison - he could have killed us both."
And she added in her court statement: "Physically injuries heal with time, emotional damage is far harder to heal, I don't feel I will ever emotionally be the same again."
Dean, now of Bishopdown, Wiltshire, was sentenced at Taunton crown court in front of Judge Paul Cook. A warrant is out for the arrest of Jodie, who is of Salisbury, Wiltshire.
