A 30-year-old man told a Supreme Court jury of a desperate jump into a dump truck to escape a group of attackers wielding a machete and hoe.

Appearing in Supreme Court yesterday, Kuma Smith, 30, showed the jury his scars and the stump of his missing left ?pinkie finger? in the attack on January 5, 2005.

Three men ? Harron Lee Powell Evans, 31, Akono Shakir Parsons, 24, and Davon Michael Marson, 29 ? are accused of attempting to murder Mr. Smith. They deny the charges.

Crown Counsel Carrington Mahoney outlined the events alleged to have occurred in the Deepdale area of Devonshire. Between noon and 2 p.m., he said, Mr. Smith borrowed a friend?s bike and rode to that area.

He was speaking to a friend when Marson attacked him from behind with a machete, chopping him in the shoulder and head, hitting his helmet, the court heard. The pair started to struggle, and Mr. Smith punched Marson to the ground.

Mr. Mahoney said the Crown?s case was that the other two defendants then joined in and rushed Mr. Smith.

Evans and Parsons then pursued him on motorbikes and forced a truck to stop that Mr. Smith had jumped into on Parsons Road and jumped into the back ? but the pair stopped it, got into the back, and attacked him ? one with a machete and one with a hoe, the court heard.

Mr. Mahoney said various strikes led to Mr. Smith?s left ?pinkie? finger being chopped off and his arm being broken.

Mr. Mahoney added after this, Evans and Parsons caused damage to the motorcycle he had been riding.

Taking the witness stand, Mr. Smith, from St. George?s, said he ?knew of? the accused men, having spoken to Parsons and a man he referred to as ?Davon? before the incident.

He said he had seen a man he referred to as ?Harron? before, knowing him from St. George?s.

He said that on the day in question he had been at the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions before driving to Bottom Road, Middletown, Pembroke on a bike borrowed from a friend. Next, he told the jury, he went to Deepdale East to talk to somebody.

He claimed he was sitting on the bike with the helmet on when he noticed a blow on his right shoulder and turned around to see a man he referred to as ?Davon? standing behind him, who he punched in the face, knocking him out.

Mr. Smith said he went to pick up his bike from the ground when he saw people coming at him with machetes.

In court he named these individuals as ?Akono? and ?Jamiko? and said they had come from a porch nearby.

Mr. Smith said he ran away, and on Parsons Road noticed two bikes coming towards him ? one of which had two people on it.

?I noticed Akono had a machete and Harron with a hoe,? he said, explaining that he tried to stop a dump truck and ended up jumping in its bucket.

He accused ?Harron? of hitting him in the arm and ?Akono? of hitting him in the head.

He explained that when he put his hand up to his head: ?That?s when I noticed my finger was off. The pinkie finger was hanging off.?

He said he believed the injury was caused by the hoe. After jumping out of the truck he said he sat down because he was dizzy and waited until an ambulance showed up. He said he spent around six days in hospital and displayed the scars on his head, arm and forearm to the jury, telling them that the one on his left shoulder had ?healed good?. He also pointed to the stump of his missing finger.

Charles Richardson, defending Evans, put it to Mr. Smith that he did not know ?Harron? well and asked him if he had told Police his last name.

The witness replied: ?No, I knew it, but it slipped my mind. I have done time with him ? been in jail with him ? if you want me to say how much I know him.?

Mr. Richardson put it to him that he was ?sorely mistaken? and his client had not come up to the truck and tried to hit him, and was not the man he knew from St. George?s. Mr. Smith denied this. His testimony is set to continue today.

Evans and Parsons are also accused of wilful damage and possessing an offensive weapon, with Parsons also accused of common assault. Marson faces a charge of possessing an offensive weapon.