A SAVAGE pair of thugs who carried out a horror machete attack that left one victim with a partially amputated hand have been caged.

Brian Brooks, Josh McIntyre and an unnamed accomplice pounced on Christopher Mellon and Donna Galloway in their Renfrewshire home on September 24 last year.

The couple were asleep, with their two young children also at home, when they were targeted by Brooks and McIntyre, who were wearing masks and dressed in white protective suits and gloves.

Mr Mellon, 27, had three fingers on his left hand amputated and his brain was exposed by a cut through his skull.

He underwent surgery lasting 17 hours in a bid to repair the damage.

A three-year-old child was also left injured after being struck repeatedly with machetes.

Brooks and McIntyre, both 26, denied being involved during a trial at the High Court in Glasgow in August but were each convicted of attempting to murder Mr Mellon and assaulting 34-year-old Ms Galloway to her severe injury and permanent disfigurement.

The duo were further convicted of assaulting the three-year-old child.

They have each been ordered to spend 12 years behind bars.

Sentencing Brooks and McIntyre at the High Court in Edinburgh on Friday, judge Lord Brodie said: "The evidence showed what appeared to be a carefully planned, premeditated attack by three attackers armed with machetes and knives at a private home."

Mum-of-four Ms Galloway recalled how the pair and a mystery accomplice were masked when they stormed into their house in Ferguslie Park Avenue, Paisley.

She told jurors: “All three of them were all round Chris.”

The attackers eventually fled, leaving the victims badly hurt and the living room covered in blood.

Prosecutor Craig Findlater asked forklift truck driver Mr Mellon how his life had been affected.

Mr Mellon replied: “I can’t hold my sons’ hands crossing the road. I don’t have full movement or control in my hands.

“I am going to lose my job. My employers are terminating my contract.”

He told the advocate depute of being “one hundred per cent sure” that Brooks and McIntyre were involved.

Ms Galloway, who suffered cuts to her head and shoulder, said one of the duo had “laughing, evil eyes.”

She added: “There is something distinctive about his eyes but I don’t know what it is.”

It was claimed during the trial that Brooks, of Thornliebank, and McIntyre, from Pollok, had been held as a result of “mistaken identity.”

It also emerged that spray-painter Brooks already had convictions for assault and robbery, as well as having an offensive weapon.

Lord Brodie told Brooks and McIntyre that the injuries inflicted on Mr Mellon during the attack had resulted in "significant loss of function" to the victim's hands.

He added: "You are both fathers of young children who wish to be involved in their care.

"Nevertheless, as counsel accepted on your behalf, I have no alternative but to impose significant custodial sentences."

The judge pointed out that the offence was described by defence counsel in speeches to the jury as "horrific, unconscionable and something for which there was no room for in a modern society," as well as "a terrible attack" that had left the victims physically and mentally scarred.

Lord Brodie said: "It involved forced entry to a private home and the attack with weapons on those present, one of whom was a three-year-old child."

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