A dad has told how he lay in his house thinking he was going to die after being attacked by a stranger who stabbed him three times in the street outside his home.

Gerald Edwards was watching TV when a piece of wood came flying through the window.

The 60-year-old raced outside to find a gang of youths standing in the street.

Maidstone Crown Court heard how one of them - 19-year-old Jordan Ash - then stabbed him three times.

Mr Edwards' son Christopher managed to drag him back inside where a neighbour performed first aid.

Speaking this week, the care worker said: "When I was in the lounge, I looked down and there was a pool of blood."

He was rushed to hospital where he was in surgery for five and a half hours.

Ash was found guilty of the attack and is now facing a hefty sentence.

Gerald Edwards had sat down to watch a DVD on Friday, September 29 last year, when his window was smashed by a lump of wood being thrown.

When the 60-year-old went outside to confront the group of vandals, he was knifed by Jordan Ash, 19.

Describing the “terrible night”, he said: “I thought I was going to die for certain.

“I was blacking out within less than a minute, but I was awake the whole time – I could hear and feel everything, I just couldn’t see. It was incredibly scary and a surreal experience.

“I was sitting there quietly, getting ready to go to work the next day, and the next minute I was dying.

“I thought I was going to die for certain..." - Gerald Edwards

“You don’t think you’ve been stabbed. It felt like a heavy blow, more powerful than a punch – I knew I was in serious trouble. I couldn’t get into the house quick enough.

“When I was in the lounge, I looked down and there was a pool of blood. There was puddle of it on the floor. I’m lucky to be alive.”

Mr Edwards’ son Christopher had to drag his father back into the house in Vicarage Road, Strood, after the incident.

But when trying to shut the door, Ash tried to get in, smashing their front-door windows with the knife and slicing the 20-year-old’s hand.

Father-of-two Mr Edwards was left in a coma for three days after the attack and thinks the thug and his group were out to cause a tragedy.

He added: “If he got in the house who knows what he would have done.

“I think he would have murdered us all. I think he was out to kill.”

Mr Edwards had his spleen removed during a five-and-a-half-hour operation, was left with 30% of his pancreas and had his liver sliced.

The full-time carer admitted the hardest thing was seeing his family suffer.

He said: “The worst part of it seeing your loved ones going through the aftermath.

“The death would have been quick for me, but leaving behind your wife, children, dog and family.

“It’s terrible for everybody.

“My son went through it just as bad as me, he went through more of an ordeal than I did that night.

“He nearly saw his dad die that night.”

Mr Edwards, who was at Ash’s conviction at Maidstone Crown Court on Friday, was relieved with the outcome.

“The chances are he will have a long sentence and won’t do the same to anyone else. That’s the worry.

“I’m hoping he gets a life sentence. The thought of him coming out and doing the same thing to someone else is worrying.”