He pulled a knife out.. he got my ear - it was hanging on
DAD DESCRIBES HOW CRAZED CAGE FIGHTER VICIOUSLY ATTACKED HIM MOMENTS AFTER MURDERING EX-PARTNER
A DAD has told of how a knife man who’d just murdered his former partner stabbed at his head and ‘left his ear hanging off.’
Gerard Bristow told how ex-cage fighter Andrew Wadsworth, 37, chased him down the street, ‘making a beeline’ for him just moments after he had stabbed Melissa Belshaw to death in her upstairs bedroom.
Mr Bristow was caught in the firing line next and alarming CCTV footage released earlier this week revealed how the cocaine-addled murderer pursued him along the street.
Footage shows Wadsworth viciously swiping at him with the blade as he desperately backed away.
Dressed in flops and shorts, he was ill-prepared for such a terrifying and life-threatening confrontation.
The dad described how he and another heroic passerby were bravely primed to go inside the Upholland Road house in Billinge after hearing terrible screams from inside, where the mum-of-one had just been fatally attacked.
Van driver Kevin Moores bravely smashed into the locked house with a hammer. Mr Bristow said: “I heard her [Melissa’s daughter] screaming saying ‘my mum’s been killed.’
“Me and this lad [Kevin Moores] were stood there, wondering what do we do next...Before we knew it, there was Andrew Wadsworth trying to climb out of the smashed porch window.”
Mr Bristow said: “We were stood behind the car. But because I was asking the questions, ‘is she okay in there?’ several times, he said ‘yeah, she’s fine... I’m just after the Scouser next door’.
“And within seconds he made a beeline for me, and I actually think it was because I was the one asking all the questions. He was suddenly on top of me, he pulled a knife out of his trousers, down to his left hand and side, and that’s when he started coming at me with the knife. “I believe he got my ear, going for my head obviously, but he managed to take part of my ear off, it was hanging on. “Unfortunately I had flip flops on at the time, I wasn’t really prepared for this.”
Mr Moores raced over and kicked Wadsworth as he was on top of Mr Bristow as he pinned him down, which allowed the 46-yearold to stagger away.
Mr Bristow sustained serious stab wounds to the chest and collarbone area and a collapsed lung.
Wadsworth was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 32 years for the May 20 murder and the attempt to murder Mr Bristow.
The violent thug, who once left a man with a brain injury after striking him over the head with a hammer in a house robbery, will be in his 60s before he will be considered for release.
Mr Bristow had been about to take an incorrectly delivered parcel to a nearby resident when he heard screaming coming Miss Belshaw’s home.
He was told by his wife to check if ‘everyone was alright’ following the commotion.
In court, Mr Bristow recounted: “I vividly remember grabbing hold of his hand and not letting go, the hand with the knife in, and I think he then swapped his hand and he went at me with that.
“I thought he wanted to hurt me when he ran at me with the knife but I realised he wanted to kill me when he was stabbing me on the floor.”
Unfortunately I had flip-flops on at the time, I wasn’t really prepared for this
Gerard Bristow