AN elderly Newport man said he is lucky to be alive after being battered with a brick as he walked home alone.

Roy McCarthy, 63, of Old Barn Estate, was left for dead after the brutal and unprovoked attack at the hands of a 20-year old.

Mr McCarthy was making his way home from The Maindee pub, Chepstow Road, when he was attacked by Christopher Hale at about 11.30pm on February 29 on Old Barn Way.

Yesterday a jury at Newport crown court found Hale, 20, of Buttermere Way, Newport, guilty of causing actual bodily harm. He now faces being locked up.

After the hearing Mr McCarthy said he realised he was being followed by a stranger but remained calm and kept heading for home.

He said: "As he was coming up I knew he was going to rapidly catch me up and I knew he was doing it for a reason. I knew there was going to be some trouble."

Mr McCarthy said Hale was "breathing down his neck" and told him he was carrying a gun. He then grabbed him and wrestled him to the ground before smashing him in the ribs and head with a house brick and punching him to the jaw.

He said: "I was angry, angry that I had ended up in hospital and he was out. Now I am lucky to have survived and I hope he gets severe punishment.

"He had to be found guilty, I would have been very disappointed if he wasn't. He should be sent to jail for at least three years for what happened to me. He is too dangerous to be walking the streets."

Mr McCarthy was left with a broken rib, broken wrist and face and head injuries. It was ten months before he felt confident enough to walk the same route again.

He said: "I didn't bother walking back for a long time after it happened because it can be a long walk, but I walked all the way back alone on New Year's Eve.

"I won't let him and what happened to me stop me from going out and doing things I want to do. He won't beat me and I have put the attack behind me now."

Mr McCarthy thinks that if it had not been for two people who stopped to help - one a qualified first aider, the other a taxi driver - he could have been left to die.

He said: "I was lucky to survive the attack, I could have been left for dead had nobody called an ambulance, I am very grateful to them for potentially saving my life."

Mr McCarthy took a month to recover from his injuries and still suffers rib pains and has to have physiotherapy for his arm injury.

Recorder Jonathan Furness told Hale: "You are likely to be sent to a young offenders' institution.

"You have been convicted of a serious offence on an elderly man at night. In consequence he suffered unpleasant head injuries."

Prosecutor Bernard Powell said that at about 11.30pm on February 29, Mr McCarthy was walking home along Caerleon Road. Hale went up to him and said he had a gun and would shoot him.

He said: "At that point he grabbed Mr McCarthy and during a struggle hit him on the left side of the head with a house brick."

Mr McCarthy identified Hale as his attacker at the scene as he was carried into an ambulance on a stretcher.

Police found the brick at the scene and forensic experts later found brick dust in one of Hale's pockets.

Hale claimed that he went to the aid of Mr McCarthy when he saw him fall to the ground and denied assaulting him.

Sentencing was adjourned until January 28 for reports and Hale was remanded on bail.