A DRUG dealer stormed an innocent man’s house and attacked him with a machete.

Anthony Hather, from Padgate, repeatedly struck the victim with the weapon after raiding his home in a case of mistaken identity.

But the 31-year-old was identified in bizarre circumstances after the homeowner found a piece of the defendant’s skin lodged in his teeth, having bitten his attacker while attempting to disarm him.

Liverpool Crown Court heard today, Thursday, that Hather was the passenger in a Vauxhall Corsa which was pulled over by police in June 2019.

A search of the car revealed a small amount of cannabis worth around £100 and £995, while the ‘street dealer’ was in possession of four mobile phones which contained incriminating messages relating to the supply of drugs.

Then, on the afternoon of April 13 this year, he attended an address on Redshank Lane in Birchwood armed with a machete.

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The occupant, who had been playing Xbox games with his friends, answered the door and was asked ‘who the f*** he was’ before being pinned against the wall by his assailant.

Hather pulled a machete, the blade of which remained covered by its casing at all times during the incident, from his trousers and hit him with it ‘four to five’ times to the torso.

A struggle for the knife ensued, during which the attacker bit his victim on the shoulder and was in turn bitten on his hand.

An accomplice who had also attended the scene then said ‘leave it, it’s the wrong house’, while a friend of the complainant had grabbed a knife from the kitchen and shouted ‘if you don’t get off him I’ll stab you’ – at which point the pair fled.

As they did so, the resident said: “My kids could have been here, you’ve just ran into my house with a machete.”

Police later arrived, and a piece of skin recovered from his teeth was found to match Hather’s DNA.

Upon his arrest, he subjected one officer to ‘despicable’ racist abuse – drunkenly hurling insults including ‘you black b*****d’ and ‘black monkey’ at him.

Hather, of Biggin Court, admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm, possession of cannabis with intent to supply, being concerned in the supply of cannabis, possession of criminal property and a racially-aggravated public order offence during an earlier hearing and was jailed for 28 months.

Sentencing, judge David Aubrey said: “These offences are so serious that only an immediate prison sentence is justified for them.

“Those offences were committed while you were on bail for offences relating to controlled drugs. You had a classic drug dealer’s kit on you, and you have admitted precisely that by way of your guilty pleas.

“You then targeted a particular house and a particular person, or so you believed.

“This court has no doubt whatsoever that the targeting of that particular person was a consequence of your involvement in the supply of drugs.

“Whatever it was, you had an issue with that particular person.

“You knocked on the door of the house while you were in possession of a lethal weapon.

“An attack took place, with you hitting him with that covered machete.

“He described having sleepless nights – he was left feeling vulnerable, intimidated and paranoid.”

Hather – who has 14 previous convictions, including for assault occasioning actual bodily harm and possession of cannabis with intent to supply – was also handed a restraining order preventing him from contacting the victim for five years and told to pay a victim surcharge.

He will serve half of his prison sentence before being released on licence.

Forfeiture of the cash and destruction of the drugs was ordered.