A PENISTONE businessman who was knifed in the back in the middle of the day has spoken out about his terrifying ordeal.

Andy Wilson, of Green Road, was stabbed in the shoulder with an eight-inch carving knife before he collapsed and fended off his attacker from the floor, said the father-of-one.

“Had the attacker — and of course myself — been a little less fortunate, the inch-deep knife wound in my left shoulder could quite easily have involved my spine, lung or heart,” he said. “I could easily have been in hospital on a life support machine, or in the morgue.”

The 44-year-old has been left ‘weak as a kitten’ after he was attacked by a man posing as a customer at his mobile phone business, he said.

“The effort involved in holding off the down-turned knife, along with the full weight of my attacker as I was gushing blood on the floor of my office and fighting for my life, means I have torn every muscle and sinew across my shoulders and arms.

“I don’t possess such strength under normal circumstances,” he added.

Mr Wilson, who cannot even lift the weight of his arm to reach for his pain killers, said that his wife and six-year-old daughter have been affected by the ordeal.

“Nothing can compensate me and my family for this — my wife will not stay in the shop on her own any more, and we’ve tried to protect my daughter from it but the other day she said that someone tried to kill me,” he said.

The incident occurred at about 4.45pm last Monday, when the self-employed businessman was alone in his Wakefield phone shop, Chatterbox. The cash register was open but the assailant is said to have escaped without stealing anything.

Mr Wilson received stitches at Pinderfields Hospital and is now ‘walking wounded’ and back at work to avoid the pain of recalling the violent ordeal, he says.

A man has appeared before Leeds Crown Court charged with attempted robbery in connection with the incident.