A MAN horrifically pinned his ex-girlfriend’s mother to the pavement, before savaging her with a meat cleaver after she threw him out of her home, a jury heard.

Luke Mackrory brutally attacked Nicola Murnane with the weapon in the broad daylight attack in front of horrified neighbours and she openly wept as she gave evidence of her traumatic ordeal from the witness box at Reading Crown Court on Wednesday.

Police and paramedics arrived quickly at the scene after receiving reports of the attack at around 4.30pm on October 31 last year in Rhine Close, Caversham.

The 50-year-old received as many as seven appalling injuries, including fractures and gaping wounds in the brutal assault, after a masked Mackrory horrified neighbours when he returned to her home wielding the weapon, Judge Paul Dugdale heard.

Wiping tears from behind her glasses, Ms Murnane described the moments the 27-year-old bore down on her, clutching the cleaver as she pleaded with him to stop - before he threw and pinned her to the ground.

The court heard that Mackrory showered his victim with a barrage of abuse and allegations of sexual assault and cut into the side of her head in the horrifying Halloween attack.

She was saved by a witness who wrestled Mackrory from his victim and he fled the scene on a bicycle.

Incredibly, Ms Murnane managed to stumble a few steps towards her home, with blood pouring down her face, before collapsing from her horrific wounds.

Appearing via video link, Ms Murnane said: “He said, from my recollection... he was going to cut my effing head off... he came around the corner, told me he was going to f****** kill me and going to cut my head off.

“I asked him to stop, but he came towards me with the cleaver in his hand. He came straight at me with it,” she added.

She told the jury how police officers were waiting at the hospital for an assessment of her injuries and nurses estimated she received around seven or eight wounds following the attack.

The defendant had been in a relationship with Ms Murnane’s daughter, Victoria Murnane-Bell, for around eight years before their 'amicable' break-up in 2015, the court heard.

Ms Murnane-Bell appeared in court to give evidence and did so from behind a screen.

She told Judge Dugdale how the relationship between mother, daughter and Mackrory disintegrated after he began to heavily use hard drugs, including crack cocaine, before suffering a breakdown in 2017.

He spent one night in Prospect Park Hospital, before returning to Ms Murnane’s address for a few months following his discharge.

However, Ms Murnane-Bell told the jury his drug habit spiralled out of control and he was asked to leave later in 2017.

The defendant then made an unfounded allegation of sexual abuse against his victim in September 2017 and the situation continued to spiral until Mackrory’s savage attack more than one year later.

Mackrory, of Mallard Way, Aldermaston, denies one charge of attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

The trial continues.