A pensioner has described the moment his neck was viciously slashed open by a drunken neighbour on his doorstep.

In a remarkable act of compassion, 72-year-old Paul Hayman said although he felt former neighbour John Lowe should “do his time”, he held no grudge against him for inflicting the near-fatal wound.

The 12in long, 4cm deep cut ran from behind the victim’s left ear down to his collarbone - perilously close to a major artery.

Lowe, 51, was said to have carried out the attack “in revenge” for him being accused of damaging a garden fence.

Lowe, of Heath Road, Barming, was jailed for 10 years on Friday after admitting wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Speaking after the trial at Maidstone Crown Court, Mr Hayman says neighbours had put up with loud noise, intimidation and drunken behaviour from Lowe for up to five years.

But things took a more sinister turn when Mr Hayman told a neighbour he saw Lowe kicking their fence.

The grandfather had already been branded a grass in a drunken rant from the 51-year-old, before Lowe returned once more.

He said: “There was thump, thump, thump, he was trying to kick my door in, so I opened the door and showed him where the gate was.

“I felt something hit me on the head, I knew it was something sharp.

“I was going to chase after him, but I was bleeding so heavily I thought if I start running, I’m going to pump more blood out.”

Instead the 72-year-old walked two doors down to his neighbour and asked for an ambulance.

He was rushed to King’s College Hospital where the wound was found to have just missed a major artery.

The retired scaffolder said: “The nurses said to me ‘your guardian angel was with you, you don’t realise how close you were to death.”

Two weeks after the attack, the ska DJ played a gig, and says he is mostly unaffected by the attack, adding: “I’m quite resilient."