A nightclub boss was rushed to hospital with a kni

A nightclub boss was rushed to hospital with a knife sticking through his throat after an associate tried to murder him in his bed, the Old Bailey heard.

John Davis, 46, would have died if he had pulled out the blade because his blood had clotted around it, the court was told.

He was asleep when Charlie Westwood tried to strangle him, said prosector Mr Peter McGrail.

Westwood, 34, then plunged the knife into Mr Davis’s throat and shouted: ‘You’re dying,’ the court was told.

The accused knifeman had been in a ‘jocular’ mood when he turned up at the ‘Reflections’ club in Stratford on the night of March 15 this year.

He joined Mr Davis at the bar, who was chatting with other partners in the club.

At around 2am the two men went to Mr Davis’s home in Huddlestone Road, Forest Gate, and drank beer together.

‘Mr Davis decided to go to bed.

The next thing he was aware of was waking up to find the defendant choking him,’ said Mr McGrail.

‘He was doing so with extreme force.

Mr Davis tried to get up and resist and push him off and fend him away.

‘The next thing he was aware of was he had a knife thrust through his neck from left to right under his jaw, emerging on the left side under his ear.

Westwood shouted at him: ‘Your f****** mate.

You’re dying,’ the jury heard.

The knifeman then began screaming at Westwood about the death of his sister, who had died in a house fire which Mr Davis knew nothing about.

As blood poured from his appalling injury Mr Davis begged his attacker for help, promising not to ‘grass’ him to the police, the court was told.

Westwood then grabbed pnds stlg 100 and the gold rings from Mr Davis’s fingers before he fled.

The victim managed to call the police and ambulancemen found him standing outside the house with the knife still in his throat.

Mr McGrail said: ‘The jugular vein had been severed.

There was also some damage to his windpipe.

‘It was only because the knife had stayed where it was and caused the blood to clot that he had not died.

‘

Westwood, of Newark Knock, Beckton, denies attempted murder and robbery.

The trial continues.

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