Keith Alder’s family have branded the sickening attack as a “crime against the community” not just them and have called on the public to bring the other gang members to justice.

“It wasn’t just Makula – there were others involved,” said Mr Alder’s eldest son Paul after the court hearing.

“They are still out there, walking about on the streets. The police had two of them and had to let them go because they did not have enough evidence. There are people out there who have the evidence and know more and we want them to come forward and talk to the police.”

Mr Alder’s brother Robert, who was also in court, said: “It wasn’t a crime just against Keith and our family. It’s a crime against the community that’s why people must talk.

“Fifteen years would be a good sentence if that’s what it meant but he’ll only do about seven and a half and that’s not enough.”

Mr Alder, a retired roofer, has suffered a catalogue of catastrophic consequences brought on by the life-altering attack.

He received head injuries and kidney damage which led to pneumonia. He had to have emergency surgery to remove most of his bowel after scans revealed it had rotted and he was then put into an induced coma for a week. He also had to fight off an MRSA infection but worst of all gangrene cost him both legs above the knee.

Mr Alder’s wife Kath, 67, who had been on holiday with her sister in Majorca at the time of the attack last October, said: “We wish he’d got more. He’ll still be a young man when he gets out. What will my husband be like? I don’t even know if my husband will last seven and a half years. Keith is the one who has been given the life sentence.”

The sentencing came six months to the day of the attack in the driveway of their Sowden Street home in Great Horton.

Mrs Alder said: “My husband is still stuck in hospital, it’s not fair. I bet he wished he could have been here in court today – with his legs.”

She said her husband, who has now been transferred from Bradford Royal Infirmary to St Luke’s Hospital to rehabilitate, was making a slow recovery and doctors were still not able to say when he would be fit enough to return to his family.

She said: “They haven’t told us when he’ll come home but he won’t be able to come home anyway.

“He won’t want to go back to the house, not when it happened right outside on his driveway. No-one would want to do that. Our lives have changed forever now, it can never be the same and we have to face that but we will face it together as the close family we are.”

Mrs Alder added: “He’s still being fed through his stomach. He needs to build up his strength. He has to learn to sit up and get in his wheelchair. He’s been in bed for six months, he’s got to learn everything again.”

Her son Paul said: “Dad was targeted for no reason. He wouldn’t harm a fly. It could have been anybody that night but it was him. For them to do this to a 66-year-old man and for there still to be another four or five of them out there – that’s my concern, it should be everyone’s concern.”