A motorist said he thought he was going to die after being repeatedly stabbed in a road rage attack.

Terrified Rick Williams, 30, was left bleeding in the street after being knifed in the body and neck.

Yesterday he was at Brighton Crown Court to see his attacker, builder John Lucas, 43, jailed for four years.

Mr Williams said: “I felt I could have been killed. He stabbed me six times and one wound in my neck was within millimetres of my jugular vein.

“There was so much blood I thought I was going to die.”

During the attack in Hastings town centre Lucas’s three young children saw their father stabbing his victim.

The court was told the violence started after Lucas’s wife, Lorraine, called him in hysterics to say she had been in a road accident while two of the couple’s three children were in her car.

Mr Williams, who works as a security officer at Eastbourne Magistrates Court, had accidentally driven into the back of her car as it stopped in Cambridge Road.

There was only minor damage to her car but she rang her husband on her mobile screaming and crying and told him Mr Williams had deliberately driven into her.

Lucas, of Edgar Road, Hastings, drove to the scene in his white van with their young son and when he arrived he immediately starting punching Mr Williams.

While the two men struggled over the bonnet of Mr Williams’ car, Lucas got out a knife from a tool belt and stabbed his victim.

The court heard Lucas, who admitted wounding with intent, has suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after being jailed for four years in France for drug smuggling.

Ian McLoughlin, defending, said Lucas felt ashamed of his behaviour.

He said: “His wife was hysterical, on most accounts unjustifiably so. He felt the cause was Mr Williams. It was a misconception based largely on the fact his wife was in such an emotional hysterical state.”

Judge Janet Waddicor said the offence was shocking and serious.

She told Lucas: “Your wife was involved in a minor collision and only her bumper was damaged. It could not have been more trivial.

“However, your wife was extremely agitated, abusive and screaming.

“Your children saw you stabbing this innocent man. This was an unprovoked assault using a weapon arising out of a minor traffic accident.”

After the hearing Mr Williams, from Hastings, who needed 20 stitches to his wounds, said the attack in December 2006 had changed his life.

He was fearful when he saw bald men, like Lucas, in the street. He said he and his girlfriend, Katie MacIntyre, who was with him in the car, had both suffered from the shock and distress.

Mr Williams was left scarred and still suffers pain from the wounds. He said: “I am glad he is going to prison.

He deserves it. This has had a huge affect on my life. We hardly go out. If we are not working we are at home.”