A man has relived the terrifying moment his friend cut his ear with pliers and threatened to chop his penis off.
Mark Woollen was subjected to a horrific ordeal during which Grant Embleton held an insulin pen to his neck after Mark asked him for £15 he owed him.
The 45-year-old victim now says he is living in fear after his neighbour turned on him, Chronicle Live reports.
The 27-year-old thug, from Wallsend, Newcastle, was jailed for 14 months after pleading guilty to the frightening assault.
But Mark says he has been forced to move out the area he has called home all his life fearing Embleton will come after him once he is released.
And today as he relived his ordeal to Chronicle Live, the victim told how he believed the attacker would carry out his threats.
He said: "As he was making that threat he was trying to pull my zip down. I really thought he was going to do it."
"He was always up and down as far as moods were concerned, but I never once in my life suspected he would do that to me."
Mark met Embleton through his dad who lived opposite him near North Shields.
He took his neighbour’s son under his wing and helped him out whenever he needed anything, he said.
"We got on well," said Mark. "He would come across from time to time if he wanted to borrow anything."
Shortly before the attack Embleton confided in Mark that he had been going through a hard time.
He said he was suffering from mental health problems and that his mobile phone had been stolen while he was on the Metro.
Taking pity on his friend, Mark offered to sell him his old phone for £15.
"I felt a bit sorry for him," Mark explained.
However, after more than a week Embleton had still not paid up.
On the night on the attack, in March, Embleton turned up drunk at Mark’s house and said his dad had thrown him out.
As the two friends chatted, Mark mentioned the phone, and this caused Embleton to flip.
"I was perfectly calm, but he just lost it," said Mark.
"He was completely different to how I had ever seen him before.
"That’s when I started to get scared and that’s when he launched into the attack."
Embleton punched Mark in the face several times before grabbing a set of pliers that Mark used to make models.
"He said he would cut off my you know what," said Mark.
"But because I wouldn’t let him get my zip he started to cut my ear. I was absolutely terrified."
Embleton also held an insulin pen to Mark’s neck during the terrifying ordeal.
"I was in a lot of pain," said Mark.
"My ear was pouring with blood. I kept saying; ‘Grant, just calm yourself down’.
"But he was just having none of it. I just wanted to calm him down and get out of the situation."
Embleton eventually left Mark’s home saying he was going to get the last Metro home and taking his victim’s phone with him.
Terrified Mark ran out the house. Not wanting to wake his neighbours Mark attempted to run to the nearest payphone, but he got stuck on a fence on the way.
"I ran out the back door and climbed over the fence and ran across the school field," he said. "But as I tried to get over a second fence, that’s where I got myself stuck."
Mark attempted to flag down passing motorists. Eventually a woman stopped and called the police for him.
The following day Embleton returned to Mark’s home to say ‘sorry’.
Mark initially retracted his statement to police, but then changed his mind and reported the assault again.
On hearing that Mark had been back to the police, Embleton turned up at his home and made threats.
Embleton, of Wallsend was jailed for 14 months after pleading guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, criminal damage and witness intimidation at Newcastle Crown Court.
Jonathan Cousins, defending, said Embleton, who has 18 past convictions for 30 offences, couldn’t remember much of the attack and was remorseful.
He added: "He has had troubled background with issues with mental health and drugs and alcohol.
"He was under the influence of alcohol at the time of this incident; it’s something that continues to dog him."
Locking Embleton up for 14 months, Recorder Ben Nolan QC told him: "You attacked your former friend and that attack was prolonged and one that involved threatening him with an insulin pen by holding it close to his head.
"For someone who doesn’t regularly take insulin, that can be a very, very strong poison, so, undoubtedly, that pen was a dangerous weapon."
Mark has since left North Tyneside and is trying to put his ordeal behind him.
But he said he is terrified of the day Embleton is released, and angry that someone he thought of as a friend could be so violent towards him.
"I feel a hell of a lot better that he’s actually been locked up," he said. "The only thing I’m worried about now is if he sees us on the Metro or in town.
"If that’s the kind of person he is, what’s to say he won’t try do something again."
"I looked out for him and took pity on him and this is how he has repaid me.
"I was just a friend and I would have done that for any friend.
"When he told me about his mental health problems I respected him for that.
"I just wanted to help him and be there for him if he needed someone to talk to, which is just the way I am."
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