VENGEFUL drug-dealer Dzung Nguyen has been jailed for 12 years and could be deported after two vicious machete attacks in broad daylight last summer in disputes over debts.

Twenty-year-old Nguyen, known to friends as ‘Wong’, admitted two counts of wounding with intent to cause GBH after fleeing and being tracked down to Hoxton, London, on October 2.

A refugee from Vietnam, Wong was in care of Swindon Council until he was 16, when he became embroiled in the local drugs scene.

Tessa Hingston, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how on June 8 at 1.30pm a group of friends with their children had gathered at a house on Kingshill when one was summoned from an alleyway.

She said: “The defendant was standing near a vehicle with the engine running, and said, ‘Have you got my money, it’s been two months’.

“The defendant put his right hand behind his back and produced a sheath and took out a long silver-bladed knife. That weapon was described by witnesses as being between 12 to 18 inches long, or the size of an A4 sheet of paper.

"The victim describes the defendant as swinging a hacking motion at his chest. He was scared beyond belief and was backing away, tripped and fell on his back.

“Wong lunged towards him quickly and thrust the knife into the top of his knee with the blade going upwards into his thigh.

“Wong only stopped because witnesses intervened.”

The victim had 20 visits to hospital and two operations to repair his knee, requiring surgery after his ligament re-ruptured. He also had to move out of the fifth floor flat he shared with his partner and two-year-old child.

The second incident took place on July 24 at Town Gardens, in Old Town.

“The park was full of members of the public, including young children,” said Ms Hingston.

“Rowell Bramble was in the park and said he had gone there to collect his thoughts because later that day he was going to a funeral.

“He saw the defendant sprinting towards him, and as he got within a metre, Wong raised his right arm above his head, holding a large butcher’s knife or machete.

“Mr Bramble was scared and did not know why it was happening. He picked up a wooden chair and was swinging it back and forth to keep the defendant away from him.

“He tried to turn and run away and was in fear for his life – he thought Wong was trying to kill him. He grabbed the knife by the blade to stop the attack and the two struggled with it.

By this time a crowd of people had gathered and he heard Wong say ‘smash him, stab him up’.

At this point a member of the public bravely approached. Mervyn Stanley, 65, was at the park with his wife and 10-year-old grand-daughter.

“He brandished a chair to try to separate the two men, and was described as acting like a ‘lion-tamer’, telling the defendant to drop the knife,” said Ms Hingston.

“The knife was dropped and the defendant ran off. Members of the public tended to the victim who was bleeding heavily and had to have his wounds wrapped up with items of clothing.

“He thought he was only alive thanks in part to the intervention of Mervyn Stanley.”

Mr Bramble sustained deep lacerations to his left arm and left thigh, as well as cuts to his hand where he tried to grab the knife.

Nguyen has five convictions, including stabbing a fellow student in the leg in 2006, among other drug offences.

Gareth James, defending, said: “He came to this country as a refugee at the age of nine. His father seems to have been killed in Vietnam. Three or four years after they arrived his mother abandoned him and he was left in the care of the local authority until the age of 16.

"He then falls into the trap so many young people do when they come out of the care of the local authority and at the time of the offences was ‘sofa surfing’ and became involved in the distribution of drugs.

“Mr Nguyen maintains Mr Bramble had been involved in a robbery of him in which money and drugs were taken, and there was an element of revenge in this attack. These offences are against other people involved in some way in the local drugs scene.”

Recorder Peter Towler, sentencing, praised the actions of Mervyn Stanley.

“These are extremely serious offences,” he said. “How it would have ended if someone had not intervened can only be a matter of speculation.

“In my judgement the behaviour of Mervyn Stanley should be the subject of public recognition, and I propose to award him out of the Sheriff’s Fund the sum of £250 for his brave actions.”

He told Nguyen: “The harm you caused in these two offences was serious, and you pose a serious risk of significant harm to those you believe have wronged you.”

Nguyen will also serve four years on licence and was made to pay £120 victim surcharge.