A middle-aged training manager ended up with his throat cut after he invited a man he met on a gay dating website to his home for sex, a court heard.

After slashing Ian Garrod’s neck with a knife, Shane Dunn, 25, pretended to phone for an ambulance and then left him lying in his bed bleeding heavily, it was alleged.

Mr Garrod, 55, told how he feared he would die but his housemate later returned to the Medway home from holiday and called the emergency services.

Dunn, of Victoria Road, Golden Green, Tunbridge Wells, denies attempted murder and an alternative charge of wounding with intent.

Prosecutor Deborah Charles said Mr Garrod, who runs training courses for scientists, used an application called Grindr on his mobile phone to contact potential sexual partners.

At the time of the alleged attack he was living with a friend he had previously been in a relationship with.

Miss Charles said Mr Garrod spent the night at his home with a man on September 5 last year. Two days later he did the same with another man he met regularly.

The next day, on September 8, he went on Grindr and arranged for a man calling himself Gypsy Boy or Gypsy Lad to go to his home for sex.

“It was the defendant Shane Dunn,” Miss Charles told Maidstone Crown Court. “At the time he didn’t know his real name.”

Dunn brought a drug with him which they both took. Mr Garrod regularly used a drug called Tina - a crystal meth - for sexual encounters.

Mr Garrod was not able to have full sex but Dunn stayed into the early hours of the next day. At one point, he went to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

When he returned he sat next to Mr Garrod on the bed. He assumed they would continue sexual activity.

“Mr Garrod felt as if someone had slapped him in the neck,” Miss Charles told the jury of seven men and five women. “He put his hand up to his neck and realised it was covered in blood.

“He never saw the weapon coming towards him. It happened too quickly. He just thought the defendant was leaning towards him, perhaps to kiss him or carry on what they were doing.”

It appeared that Dunn had taken a knife from a block in the kitchen and slashed Mr Garrod’s thyroid gland and anterior jugular vein as he lay face up on the bed.

“Mr Garrod was begging him to call an ambulance,” said Miss Charles. “Mr Dunn pretended to do just that. He pretended to make a call and said an ambulance was coming.”

Dunn took Mr Garrod’s wallet, iPhone, iPad and jewellery.

“Mr Garrod was left lying on the bed with a wound that was life threatening,” Miss Charles continued.

His housemate returned that morning from holiday to find him lying in a pool of blood. He called for an ambulance.

Mr Garrod said he did not know who had done it and claimed they had been burgled in the night.

“He didn’t want the police or anyone else in authority to know about his lifestyle,” said Miss Charles.

"Mr Garrod felt as if someone had slapped him in the neck. He put his hand up to his neck and realised it was covered in blood" - prosecutor Deborah Charles

He was taken to Medway Hospital and needed surgery for a 5cm cut to his throat. He told police what had happened.

Dunn’s DNA profile was found on two cigarette ends retrieved from the garden.

Mr Garrod said it was his first sexual encounter with Dunn but he later realised there had been a threesome with him and his boyfriend.

Dunn made no comment when arrested. Mr Garrod picked him out of an identification procedure.

“The Crown’s case is that this defendant attempted to murder Mr Garrod, inflicting a wound to his throat intending to kill him,” added Miss Charles.

The trial continues.