Only luck may have saved Daf Roberts’ life when a drunk, drug-addled bodybuilder forced open his car door and attacked him with a meat cleaver.
The talented musician has been left with permanent nerve damage and unable to play guitar in his childhood band as a result of the unprovoked attack in a Cardiff Bay car park.
But had the blade not snapped during the ferocious assault, the attack could have been far worse.
Daf had no reason to suspect anything would happen as he parked in the Red Dragon centre car park in Cardiff Bay last month.
Was just hoping for a quiet night out
The 25-year-old was looking forward to a night out as he waited for a friend to finish shopping in Cardiff city centre.
But just seconds after turning off his engine of his black Ford Fiesta, the letting agent from Heath, Cardiff, was being assaulted by Polish bodybuilder Lukasz Sierzant.
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Steroid-abuser Sierzant, 31, was armed with a meatcleaver and a can of petrol after a three-day alcohol and cocaine binge.
He forced open Daf’s driver’s door, before repeatedly lunging at him with the blade.
Saved only by split-second thinking, Daf managed to dodge the blows by shielding his face and body with his arms. They suffered severe lacerations during the attack.
'He didn't say a word and started hacking at me'
“I was taken completely by surprise, and without saying a word this bald figure dressed in black forced open my door and started hacking at my face and neck,” said Daf, who has moved back in with his parents in Aberaeron since the attack.
“I put my arms up to protect myself, but he just kept hacking at both my arms. I didn’t know what was happening and I remember shouting ‘I’ve got no money’.
“I tried to fend him off with my legs while frantically trying to undo my seatbelt, but it was only when I looked down at my hands that I realised my fingers were twisted due to the blade severing the tendons in my left arm.”
Next came a 'miracle'
In what Daf describes as a “miracle”, the sickening attack came to an abrupt end when the blade of the weapon snapped on impact and fell to the floor.
“When the blade snapped I just remember thinking, ‘thank God’.
He stepped back clearly panicking and I managed to grasp my fingers together and force my seatbelt buckle to open.
“I then got out and walked past him. I was expecting him to attack me again, but he just let me get out before he climbed into the car.”
Sierzant lost control and crashed car into a roundabout
After escaping from the vehicle Daf watched still drunk Sierzant attempt to escape, before losing control and crashing into a nearby roundabout.
He then stumbled over to the Miller and Carter steakhouse, where staff and passers-by Helen McDermott and a couple from Cardigan, were able to slow the bleeding from deep lacerations to both his arms by using towels from the restaurant’s kitchen.
“I couldn’t feel any pain, I was too pumped from the adrenaline and fear,” Daf added.
“It was only when Helen made a 999 call and screamed down the phone for an ambulance that I looked down and saw that the blade had cut right through to the bone.
“It was a miracle that he didn’t sever the main artery in my wrist, if he had, I probably would have bled out before they managed to get me to hospital.”
Ambulance did not show up
Arriving at the scene shortly after the attack, a first response police officer rushed Daf to the University Hospital of Wales after an ambulance failed to attend the emergency.
“On the way to the hospital all I could keep thinking about is my fingers, I couldn’t move them at all.
“I just kept saying I can’t lose my hand, I can’t go through life being disabled without being able to use them.”
After his wounds were dressed Daf was quickly moved for specialist hand and plastic surgery treatment at Morriston Hospital in Swansea, before undergoing six hours of surgery on Sunday.
Parents feared terrorist attack
For Daf’s panic-stricken parents Garym and Liz, driving down from their family home in Aberaeron, the news of their son’s attack had been made even more worrying by the mass killings in Paris the night before.
“Apart from the actual attack itself, the worse thing about this ordeal was how worried my parents were on the way to see me.
“The police officer that informed them only had limited information, so they feared that I might have been caught up in some type of terrorist attack.
“When they got to the hospital I think they were gobsmacked at how chatty and positive I was being.”
Attacker jailed for nine years
On Friday Daf’s attacker was jailed for nine years for wounding with intent and aggravated vehicle taking and dangerous driving.
The court heard that before the attack Sierzant was drinking in the Salt bar, and was described as exhibiting strange and disturbing behaviour.
He was described as looking out of the window in a vacant manner and then becoming agitated.
He then spoke to a member of staff at the club and told them he went to the gym and took steroids and “sniff”.
He also told them that he wanted to blow up his bosses with a petrol bomb.
Injuries may last a lifetime
For Daf, the damage both physically and mentally may last a lifetime.
Unable to eat, work, or get dressed without assistance for the foreseeable future, Daf has been forced to move back home temporarily with his parents, and will begin counselling therapy over the next few months.
“I do feel very lucky to be alive, but when I’m having stitches taken out, or wanting to play football or guitar, I do think why me, why did he do it?
“I’m very sad that I won’t be able to play for my Band Fushanti again, it was something I used to really enjoy.
'Thank you' to so many
“I’m getting back to being myself now and I’m coping okay, but it really has left me shaken.
“Having the support of my friends and family has really helped, and I want to say thankyou to them, and the Miller and Carter staff and people who helped me that night.
“I just wish the man who did this had asked me to get out rather than do all this. I would have got out and told him to fill up, as I was low on petrol anyway.”
see-http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/young-mans-life-not-same-10626972
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