A MAN was stabbed in the chest five times after he confronted a midnight burglar at his home.

Roger Jones had just put his car in his garage when a man with a scarf over his nose lunged at him.

The 58-year-old's attacker fled but Mr Jones, who recovered from superficial injuries, was unable to name his assailant, a jury heard.

But drug addict Craig Parkin later claimed to police that Andrew Wise had confessed to going to the home in Alder Close, Tunnel Hill, Worcester.

Wise - Mr Parkin's second cousin - admitted that the raid went wrong, Worcester Crown Court heard.

John Attwood, prosecuting, said the heroin user first burgled Mr Jones's home in October last year. He alleged that, in January this year, he decided to break in again to find a safe.

But his plan failed and he ended up stabbing Mr Jones, probably with a screwdriver.

The court heard that Wise had already admitted the first burglary after blood found at the scene matched his DNA profile.

But the 22-year-old, of Cyril Road, Worcester, denies wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and an alternative charge of unlawful wounding.

Mr Parkin, aged 18 - who, at the time of the attack, lived with Wise in Belmont Road, Worcester - was prosecuted for siphoning £1,700 from the bank account of his girlfriend Anna Warburton to buy drugs, the jury was told.

The former heroin user, then told police she was with Mr Parkin on the night of the attack when Wise returned and said: "Something's just happened to me."

Wise was wearing a black woolly hat, similar to one Mr Jones saw on his attacker.

Convicted heroin dealer JamesLowrie, 22, told the court that he heard Wise was involved in a stabbing over a safe.

When he asked Wise if it was true, Wise confirmed it but warned him to keep it a secret.

"This is an insight into the seedy world of drug-taking," said Mr Attwood. "The defendant's a burglar, a liar and a drug-taker. He confessed to Mr Parkin. This was a nasty, planned attack."

Wise declined to give evidence at his trial. But he told police he had nothing to do with the stabbing, claiming he had been "stitched up".

His counsel William Rickarby insisted that witnesses who took drugs were unreliable.

He said Mr Parkin was a man who had even ripped off his own girlfriend and added that "it can't be excluded that he's the attacker".

Mr Rickarby suggested Mr Parkin had a motive to go to Mr Jones' home. When his girlfriend went to police, she cut off his supply of money to buy drugs. The trial continues.