A MAN has been jailed for five years for attacking his former friend with a pair of garden shears.

Ben Steele, 26, thrust the shears up to five times at Kevin Ganabathy, wielding them in a chopping motion, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Mr Ganabathy fell and broke his arm as he fled with blood soaking through his clothing following the unprovoked attack outside Steele's then address in Calversyke Street, Braithwaite, Keighley, on July 10 last year.

Prosecutor Abigal Langford said Mr Ganabathy needed surgery to clean his wounded left arm and a skin graft to cover the hole left by the slicing shears.

He still suffered loss of feeling in his fingers.

The court heard that the two men had been friends for a long time but when Mr Ganabathy walked past Steele's home, the defendant accused him of not keeping in touch and ignoring his calls.

He then picked up the shears after shouting: "I ought to kick the f*** out of you."

Steele swung the shears like a bat, then thrust them at Mr Ganabathy in a chopping motion, striking his left arm four or five times.

Mr Ganabathy fractured his arm as he tried to escape from the attack.

Steele had eight previous convictions for ten offences, including a wounding charge in 2014, Miss Langford told the court.

He pleaded guilty to wounding Mr Ganabathy with intent to do him grievous bodily harm on the day he was to stand trial.

Steele's barrister, Ken Green, said his client was diagnosed with a paranoid personality disorder by a psychiatrist after he committed the offence of wounding three years ago.

It led him to suspiciousness and a tendency to see the actions of others as hostile or contentious.

Steele, now of Acres Street, Keighley, had been in custody since March on a different assault charge that was yesterday dropped by the prosecution.

He was doing well in prison, showing remorse and trying to better himself, the court was told.

Steele, who had a young son, was anxious to obtain educational qualifications while serving his sentence, Mr Green said.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC conceded that Steele's mental disorder caused him to misunderstand situations and have a distorted sense of reality.

It took courage to plead guilty to an offence of Section 18 wounding.

"This was an attack on an unarmed and unsuspecting man in the street, you using a very unpleasant weapon," Judge Durham Hall said.