A Bradford businessman who suffered horrific injuries in a brutal hammer attack today revealed his family has faced threats and intimidation by a gang of thugs.

One of the gang, Warren Nicholson, 24, was in jail today at the start of a ten-year sentence for the assault on demolition contractor Bill Reidy on St Valentine's Day in 1996.

Mr Reidy said he had been threatened throughout the ten-day trial from gangland associates of Nicholson, who was in a three-man gang hired to attack him.

He believed those who ordered the assault would come for him again and he has spent thousands of pounds in security measures at his Bradford home.

He said Nicholson appeared to enjoy beating him with a lump hammer in the attack at his office off Leeds Road in Bradford.

He said: "If I hadn't been determined and put up such a fight he would probably have been facing a life sentence now - he would have killed me.

"To have come and broken a leg would have been bad enough but this Nicholson fellow was a psychopath - he enjoyed it.

"Every time he heard a bone break he was laughing. I couldn't do to an animal what they did to me that night."

Mr Reidy said he and his family had faced threats since the attack.

"They've threatened to put a bullet in my head in Court," he said. "They've always been in a cowardly gang when they've said it - never as an individual.

"Nicholson was paid to do a job and got ten years but the person who paid him the £10,000 should have got life."

His home is now covered by closed-circuit security cameras and panic buttons linked to police. But he remained defiant his life would not be ruled by the threat of future violence.

"It was difficult to stand up in court because they've made threats to me, my wife and children," he said. "But I'm not scared of them, I have no fear of them and will never will have.

"It's not nice to wake up in the morning and even when I'm going to work I'm looking over my shoulder all the time and it is a strain on the family.

He praised police who had backed him to the hilt and worked hard to secure convictions.

Yesterday a jury at Bradford Crown Court took almost five hours to find Warren Nicholson, formerly of Westmoreland Road, Newcastle, guilty of causing Bill Reidy grievous bodily harm with intent.

£10,000 deal of the Valentine's Day thugs

Three men handed the contract to cause "serious harm" to Bill Reidy were to be paid £10,000, the Telegraph & Argus can reveal today.

The gangsters travelled to Bradford from the north-east, part of the money already paid by the people who ordered the attack and the rest to be paid on completion of the job.

The men given the contract have been described by police as "hired thugs" with links to the criminal fraternity in Newcastle and the city's notorious West End.

Someone in Bradford wanted to hurt Mr Reidy, and through a "middle-man" had been put in touch with the villains in the north-east.

They came to Bradford on St Valentine's Day two years ago and burst into Mr Reidy's office.

The attack left the demolition contractor with both arms broken, a suspected fractured skull, rib injuries and dozens of cuts to his head. He was in hospital for about ten days, in a wheelchair for several weeks and unable to work for nine months.

He told the jury during the ten-day trial how he thought he was going to die as he desperately used pieces of furniture to fend off the blows.

During the attack the men told Mr Reidy: "It will teach you to pay your debts."

Purely by chance, Mr Reidy's son-in-law phoned the premises during the attack and in the struggle the phone was knocked over. He could hear the screams and dialled 999.

Again by chance, a patrol car was passing and two officers attended the scene. PCs Phil Burgon and Andy Bruce, who were commended for their bravery, arrested Nicholson's brother Paul. He was later sentenced to six years for grievous bodily harm.

Warren Nicholson and the other attacker escaped in a white BMW. Bradford Central detectives immediately launched an investigation and through their intelligence network, found links in the north-east.

Two months later a joint operation between Bradford Central CID and Newcastle police was launched. Nicholson was found hiding in his loft. The police were unable to find sufficient evidence to take the third man to court.

Nicholson was let out on bail and disappeared. He was found more than a year later, on June 24, 1997, working on the Jubilee Line extension in London.

He was arrested and returned to Bradford.

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