A mother has relived the terrifying ordeal when a man slashed her face with an axe in an unprovoked attack.
Ingrid Brown, 35, and her partner Michael Liddell were at their home in the Gold Coast suburb of Coombabah when they say they saw two men lurking in bushland behind the house.
Ms Brown said she saw a man raise ‘both his hands above his head’ and she registered it was an axe seconds before she was struck in the face on July 1, leaving her scarred for life and facing the possibility of never smiling again.
‘It’s awful, I just want to smile and play with my daughter,’ she told Nine News.
After being struck, Ms Brown says she fell to the ground, holding her wounded face, but said she didn’t realise how badly she was injured at first.
Ingrid Brown (above) relived the terrifying ordeal when a man slashed her face with an axe in an unprovoked attack
Her alleged attacker, Clint Daryn Hall – a 35-year-old crane operator, also from Coombabah – applied unsuccessfully to be released on bail in Brisbane Supreme Court last month.
The court heard that after Mr Liddell saw Hall and his stepbrother Thomas Ealam, 18, behind his home, he asked them what they were doing.
Mr Liddell reportedly confronted the pair accusing them of stealing a copper pipe from a nearby construction site.
Seconds before Ms Brown was attacked, Mr Liddell reportedly shouted to his partner: ‘Ingrid, there’s a machete.’
Ms Brown’s partner Matthew Liddell (above, together) confronted the men about stealing from a nearby construction site, the court heard
Ms Brown said she’d never seen either of the men the men before.
‘I don’t know why this happened. I didn’t provoke them at all,’ she added.
It was Hall who called police because he was concerned he’d seriously injured the woman, the court heard.
He allegedly used a martial arts-style sword, between 30cm and 40cm long, to attack Ms Brown and slash Mr Liddell’s arm.
Ms Brown spent three days in hospital afterwards.
Ms Brown spent three days in hospital after the vicious attack and Mr Liddell was cut in the arm
Her cheek bone was sliced off in the attack and needed to be secured back in place with three screws.
She also sustained a 20cm cut to her other cheek, which required 24 stitches, and is likely to be left with a permanent scar across her face, according to doctors.
Hall has remained in custody since the incident.
Both he and Ealam face a possible life sentence if convicted of two charges of carrying out acts intended to maim.
Hall is also charged with unlawful possession of suspected or stolen property.
Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.