A BURGLAR carried out a “bizarre” attack in which he groped a sleeping man and stabbed him 19 times while dressed in the victim’s wife’s clothes, a court heard.

Sam Broadhurst, who was high on cocaine and alcohol, crept into the victim’s first floor flat in Farnworth, tied a dressing gown around his shoulders and put on other female garments before assaulting the occupant, Bolton Crown Court heard.

He was jailed yesterday for more than nine years.

Judge Timothy Clayson told Broadhurst: “The facts are both serious and bizarre.”

He said that the victim had fallen asleep on the settee wearing a hoodie and a pair of shorts.

He added: “He woke at around 5am to find you astride him. You had broken into the flat through the front door.

“You were wearing a cape – possibly a dressing gown – and a red top and a bra and some sort of long black skirt.

“Some of this belonged to the victim’s partner. Some of these clothes had been stolen by you out of the bedroom. As you were on top of the victim, you had your hand down his shorts.

“As he challenged you, you produced a knife, which he described as long and thin, and then began to stab him and despite pushing you off, you continued to attack him, saying you were going to kill him.”

The victim suffered 19 stab wounds to his face, arm, legs, hands and neck but despite his ordeal he managed to escape by jumping out of a window. A roof below broke his fall and he was not badly injured.

The court heard the incident had had a profound psychological effect on the man, who said it had ruined his life.

Reading the victim’s impact statement, prosecutor Julian Taylor said: “I live in fear of the man returning to try to kill me.

“I’m petrified he might be released and come after me again.”

Simon Nichol, for Broadhurst, said: “Fortunately, the physical injuries suffered by the victim were not nearly as bad as they might have been.”

He said his client had been diagnosed with ADHD as a child and spent some time in the care system and accessed mental health services as an adolescent but not as an adult.

The judge told Broadhurst: “You have a despicable anti-social behaviour trait which is made worse by drink and drugs and causes you to become unpredictable, volatile and violent.

“There’s very little that can be said by mitigation.

“You pose a significant risk of causing serious harm to members of the public by commission of further offences.”

Broadhurst, aged 25, of Albert Road, Farnworth, carried out the attack on June 18 last year.

He admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and was convicted of sexual assault and theft following a trial.

The defendant was jailed for two-and-a-half years for the sexual assault and for a consecutive seven years and four months for the wounding with intent.

He received a concurrent six months’ term of imprisonment for the theft and will be under an extended three years licence on his release.

Broadhurst must notify the police of his address for life.