A mechanic told a court he thought he was going to die after being attacked with fire extinguishers and broken bottles.

Daniel Rodrigues-Lay's salivary gland was so badly damaged he needed surgery to have it removed.

He told Oxford Crown Court yesterday he had tried to escape when a gang of Asian men wearing latex gloves forced their way into his home, in Lake Street, Oxford, in the early hours of June 25 last year.

Brothers Tahir and Rashad Ali, aged 23 and 21, of Howard Street, Oxford, Anwar Ali, 19, of Cobden Crescent, Oxford, and a youth deny wounding with intent.

Rashad, Anwar and the youth also deny a separate charge of wounding Oxford University graduate Colin Tinto, outside the Jolly Farmers pub in Paradise Street on May 30.

Mr Rodrigues-Lay said he was hit around the head with two fire extinguishers before a broken bottle was used to cut his right cheek, which is permanently scarred.

As he lay on the floor, he said, the men repeatedly kicked and punched him, before one of them threw his TV set at him.

He said: "I was barely conscious. I thought that was it."

Mr Rodrigues-Lay said he had been introduced to one of the defendants -- who cannot be named for legal reasons -- by his former girlfriend four days before the attack and recognised him as the person who cut his face.

He repeatedly denied that he was lying.

Mr Rodrigues-Lay's former girlfriend told the court she met the man a month earlier and Mr Rodrigues-Lay spoke aggressively to him when the man dropped her off in his car at his house.

She said the man had returned the same day with at least one other of the accused men with baseball bats, threatening to harm Mr Rodrigues-Lay.

She also identified each of the defendants from CCTV footage showing them arriving at the house.

The trial continues.