A man was left horrifically injured after being repeatedly stabbed in a row over a woman, a court heard.

Stephen Lavender, 38, was left with his intestines hanging out after he was knifed in a quiet cul-de-sac in East Grinstead.

At a trial at Lewes Crown Court Peter Simmons, 46, denies attempted murder.

The court heard violence flared in Newton Avenue on the night of January 8 last year when a fight allegedly broke out between the two men on Simmons' doorstep.

Richard Barton, prosecuting, said the confrontation began when Mr Lavender, who had been drinking, knocked on Simmons' door late at night to tell him to stop bothering a neighbour called Sara Holton.

Mr Barton said Mr Lavender and Ms Holton, a mother-of-two, had become friends and she had complained about Simmons making unwelcome advances.

Mr Lavender told the court: "I was going to have a word with him about leaving Sara alone. Peter Simmons answered the door. I said to him, 'Why are you hassling Sara? Why can't you leave her alone?

"He straight away had a go at me. I was punched in the stomach."

Mr Lavender said he used to box and had been involved in fights before but this time he felt different when he was hit.

He said: "I have done boxing before and I have been punched but it was a sensation I had not had before. My head went and I felt really weak. I lost total strength and collapsed to the floor and I believe I was unconscious.

"When I came to I knew there was something drastically wrong with me. I didn't know I had been stabbed."

Mr Lavender, who had not seen a weapon, went to his friend Janette Webb's house in the cul-de-sac where he lay down on a sofa and was covered with a quilt. She was concerned about the interest her pet dog was showing in her friend and when she lifted the quilt she saw Mr Lavender's intestines were hanging out of the wounds.

At hospital he needed emergency treatment for five stab wounds, including two in his back, a punctured lung and a lacerated spleen. He also had six inches of damaged bowel removed.

Mr Barton said: "It is the Crown's case that the defendant effectively left Mr Lavender for dead on the doorstep after he was repeatedly stabbed in what might be described as a frenzied attack with a knife."

When police arrived at Simmons' home, where he lived with his partner, they found the house empty but the couple were later found in the back garden.

Mr Barton said Simmons told officers they had fled in fear after the defendant was attacked by a man who called at their home and they had been for a drive in Ashdown Forest.

The prosecutor added that the weapon used had never been found.

Simmons, now of Campbell Close, Uckfield, also denies wounding and intimidating a witness when he allegedly shouted threats to Mr Lavender four months after the alleged stabbing.

The trial continues.