THREE men yesterday admitted their involvement in a savage attack that shattered the peace of an 18th birthday party – leaving a village pub smashed up and spattered with blood.

Revellers looked on in horror as masked men armed with machetes and baseball bats burst into the Oddfellows Arms in Haswell, near Peterlee, County Durham.

The attackers, who wore balaclavas and dark clothes, immediately set upon Robert Mawson, 40, who was targeted over an unsettled debt – cutting his left forearm to the bone with a samurai-type sword, as he tried to defend himself.

Three other men were injured in the attack, including a 46-year-old man who suffered a fractured skull when he was hit with a baseball bat.

The gang smashed the gaming machine and jukebox before leaving the pub and fleeing in Jeep-type vehicles.

Lewis Jeavons, 21, of Durham Road, Leadgate, Consett, Michael Metcalfe, 24, of West View Road, Hartlepool, and Eugene Sweeney, 25, Kingstown, Carlisle, had denied conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm to others, on April 10, last year.

They faced a three-week trial, but after two days of legal argument, changed their pleas to guilty at Newcastle Crown Court.

Robin Turton, prosecuting, said there was no evidence the three had played anything other than a subordinate role in the conspiracy, supported by mobile phone records.

Christopher Knox, for Jeavons, said his client was “not seeking to suggest he never knew weapons were being carried, but that he was not armed and never did violence”.

Metcalfe said he only drove one of the vehicles involved and had not gone into the pub.

Sweeney said he had acted as a lookout and was in the pub before the masked men burst in. Mr Turton said: “He (Sweeney) played an important part. It does not matter whether he was wearing a balaclava or not.”

Mr Mawson, of Haswell, died three months after the incident from an unrelated illness.

The men were bailed pending a pre-sentence report, which is expected to be prepared for the week beginning August 8.

A warrant was issued for the arrest of a fourth man accused of the conspiracy.

Scott Fletcher, 27, of Kilmory Walk, Hartlepool, failed to appear at court.