A TERRIFIED asylum seeker hammered on a house door shouting that a knifeman was trying to kill him but he was told to go away, a court was told.

Iraq Kurd Taha Ali, 28, staggered away but he fell down again and his attacker rained more blows upon him, said prosecutor Sue Jacobs.

His ordeal only ended when he heard a woman's voice yelling for him to be left alone.

Lab tests on his blood-soaked jacket showed he had been attacked by a sharp-pointed weapon, Teesside Crown Court was told.

The judge said that the householder was probably too afraid to go to the aid of Mr Ali, who had lived on Teesside for five years.

The judge Recorder Brian Cox QC said that his attacker Jonathon Dick, 25, who had previous convictions for possessing knives, a chair leg with nails, an air rifle and wounding a girlfriend by shooting her, posed a threat of serious harm to the public.

He sentenced Dick to an extended three and a half year sentence with 18 months in jail and two years on licence release to protect the public.

Dick pleaded guilty to the 10 January actual bodily harm assault but he denied that he had used a bladed weapon.

The judge did not accept that, saying that forensic examination of Mr Ali's clothes and photographs of his injuries led a scientist to conclude that a sharp pointed weapon had been used.

The judge told Dick: "You pose a serious risk of harm to the public.

"Your record shows a propensity to carry and use weapons and a propensity for violence. You used a weapon.

"This was a significant injury and a sustained attack and you pursued him over and over again."

Mr Ali told police that he had previously had trouble with Dick and his family, and on the night of the attack in the Bath Street area of Stockton, Dick said he was going to kill him.

Robert Mochrie, defending Dick of Condor Road, Stockton, said that he met Mr Ali by chance and there was a verbal exchange followed by the assault.

He said that Mr Dick had been searched by police an hour or two earlier and no weapon was found. He had been drinking and he did not know if he had anything in his hand when he punched Mr Ali.