A drug dealer almost died after being beaten, repeatedly knifed and then kidnapped from a city centre street by his underworld bosses, a Court heard.

Naveed Butt and Anthony Murgatroyd hunted down Jonathan Adamson - a mobile pusher who sold heroin and crack for them - after he was accused of being a police 'grass'.

Bradford Crown Court heard how the pair ambushed Mr Adamson among Christmas shoppers in Hall Ings before bundling him into their car, imprisoning him in the cellar of an associate's house and forcing a cocked gun into his mouth.

Tom Bayliss, prosecuting, told how he was eventually dumped outside Bradford Royal Infirmary suffering from a punctured lung, lacerated kidney and his tongue almost severed from his mouth.

As a mobile dealer, Mr Adamson would sell up to three ounces of heroin and crack for the pair every day using a car they supplied, said Mr Bayliss.

But the jury heard how, after being labelled a police informer, Mr Adamson feared for his life and planned to flee to Spain.

Just hours before his flight was due to leave, Adamson was spotted by Butt and Murgatroyd, who were driving close to the Hilton Hotel.

"Murgatroyd caught Mr Adamson close to the front entrance, grabbed him and repeatedly stabbed him with what is described as a steak knife.

"While Jonathan Adamson was on the ground being attacked by Murgatroyd, Butt ran from the car and took a running kick at his head with such force that it slammed into the glass front doors."

The jury heard how, as they bundled him into the car, two women threatened to call the police and Butt told them: "I am the police."

The pair then drove him to the house of an associate, James Mitchell, where they took him down into the cellar.

Speaking from the witness box, Mr Adamson said: "The wound where I was stabbed in the lung was making a horrible wheezing sound and was bleeding dramatically. I was choking on my own blood because my tongue was split in two."

Asked why the pair took him to the cellar, Mr Adamson said: "I was there because they wanted to torture me. I thought they wanted to kill me. I just kept begging them to take me to hospital but they said 'You are going nowhere'."

He told how he then saw Butt load a cartridge into a pistol and cock the gun.

"He said: 'You cannot get away with this - you know too much. We are going to have to kill you'," said Mr Adamson.

But Butt and Murgatroyd eventually left the house, leaving Mitchell to drive Mr Adamson to Bradford Royal Infirmary and dump him outside.

He said: "I crawled on my front up to the building. I was going into blackness and coming out again."

Butt, 25, of Sandford Road, Bradford Moor, denies attempted murder, wounding with intent, kidnapping, false imprisonment, making threats to kill and conspiring to supply Class A drugs.

Murgatroyd, 27, of no fixed abode, denies identical charges and also of possessing heroin with intent.

James Mitchell, 29, of Greenfield Lane, Idle, denies false imprisonment.

The trial continues.