A FORMER boxer has described how a car crashed into him and pinned him against a wall, before a man got out and slashed and stabbed repeatedly at his injured legs.

Kevin Harland, 48, whose legs were crushed – he had to have one amputated immediately and the other later – following the alleged assault, said the incident was like being in a “a slow motion movie”.

The thermal insulation engineer from Grangetown, Middlesbrough, was giving evidence at Newcastle Crown Court, where four men are accused of attempting to murder him.

Mr Harland told a jury he had been making his way to his sister’s house in Grangetown’s Leyton Road in the early hours of July 4, 2009, after a night out drinking.

He said: “I noticed a white car coming towards me very fast. I was trying to open the front gate to get into my sister’s house. The next thing I remember the car whacked into me.”

He added: “I thought I was a goner. To this day I don’t know how I survived being hit by a car.”

Mr Harland said, after the car had pinned him to the wall, he remembered trying to walk away but could not and he ended up lying in a pool of blood on the grass.

He added: “It was weird. It was a like a slow motion movie. There was lightning and thunder. I was lying on the grass and had no clue what my injuries were. As far as I can recollect somebody came from around the back of the car.”

Mr Harland, a former welterweight boxer who represented England on three occasions, said he saw one of the defendants, Andrew Daniels, coming up to him carrying what appeared to be a Samurai sword.

He added: “He was slashing and stabbing away at my legs.

He said, ‘this is the way to do it’.”

Brian Letchford, 38, of Lanchester Road, Middlesbrough, Andrew Daniels, 36, and Mark Daniels, 34, both of Bolckow Road, Middlesbrough, and Kevin Dawson, 35, of Tenby Close, Middlesbrough, all face charges of attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

All have pleaded not guilty.

The trial continues.