A FATHER was repeatedly knifed in the head when a dispute with a neighbour escalated into drunken violence, a court heard.

Terry Smith, 40, needed emergency hospital treatment for multiple wounds after the attack at his home in Stanley, County Durham.

Teesside Crown Court heard how he also suffered injuries to his hand, neck and shoulder after being set about by Darren Bulmer.

The two men argued earlier that day about a pony and spent the rest of the day drinking with friends at their separate adjoining homes.

At about midnight on September 8, Bulmer charged next door armed with a knife and attacked his neighbour, said prosecutor Shaun Dodds.

Shocked friends watched in horror as Mr Smith was stabbed and slashed and left in a pool of blood in his back garden.

Bulmer was jailed for two-and-a-half years after he admitted wounding and an earlier burglary at a house in Snowdon Crescent, Stanley.

After the house break-in, he was caught by police pushing through the streets a wheelie bin he had used to carry off his haul.

A large television, two computer game consoles and a bag were taken during the burglary, and left the householder distraught.

Bulmer was on bail when he attacked his neighbour - thought to have been a reaction to loud noise coming from next door.

Jamie Adams, mitigating, said Mr Smith had been the aggressor when Bulmer went into his home in Oswald Street, Craghead.

"One can definitely say here that this is self-defence gone too far," he said. "He has declared remorse for the harm he has done.

"All sides had been drinking here, all day long, and perhaps things are not entirely as one-sided as sometimes they present themselves."

Mr Adams said Bulmer had beaten a heroin addiction but abused alcohol, but now wants to find a job and provide for a child due soon.

Jailing him, Recorder Peter Makepeace told Bulmer the burglary was "pathetic" and was neither "cunning nor clever".

He said the stabbing could have resulted in death, and told Bulmer he was lucky not to be facing a more serious charge and longer sentence.

"You really need to take on board that this man had done nothing to deserve this and how close you came to causing him really serious injury," the judge added.

"The injuries were bad enough and life-long as far as the scarring is concerned."