A recovering cocaine addict has told a jury of the terrifying moment that Kamel Trott allegedly doused him and his friend in lighter fluid and attempted to ignite it.

David Brooks told Trott's Supreme Court assault trial that the incident was part of a campaign of violence last spring, that also saw Trott break into his home, put a gun in his mouth, threaten him with a knife, and hit him with a hammer.

Giving evidence for the prosecution yesterday, Mr. Brooks, 52, said he'd been a drug addict for about five years, but got clean after rehab in 2007.

However, he lapsed for three or four weeks in March and April 2008, around the time of the events in question.

He told the court he first met Trott around February 2008, when a friend called Shawn Hayward brought him to his house in Euclid Avenue, Pembroke one night.

Trott went to the bathroom for a private word with Mr. Brooks' girlfriend, whom he knew. He accused Mr. Brooks of disrespecting him when he asked to use the bathroom, and punched him on the right of his jaw.

Mr. Brooks said Mr. Hayward persuaded Trott to leave, but he returned a couple of weeks later in mid-March, entering the house through an unlocked door but not staying long.

The next encounter, he said, was on the night of April 26 when he heard a loud voice swearing and asking him to open the door. He opened it, thinking it was a friend.

"When I did, Mr. Trott rushed in my house, pushed me up against the wall, and stuck a gun in my mouth," he told the jury, explaining that his roommate and fellow recovering addict Scott Darrell, 39, was in the bedroom near the door.

"There was another gentleman with Mr. Trott and he was wielding a dagger... at this time I'm up against the wall with a gun stuck in my mouth and Trott proceeded to yell out 'where's the money?'"

He said Trott's accomplice made Mr. Darrell sit down on the bed while Trott slapped Mr. Brooks, kneed him in the ribs and then threw him from the doorway onto the couch.

Mr. Brooks said the accomplice then entered the room with the knife and watched over him, while he heard what he believed was Trott hitting Mr. Darrell with the gun in the bedroom and Trott yelling "where's the money?", repeatedly.

Later, he said Trott ransacked the bedroom.

"When Trott came out of the room he had a white plastic bottle of barbecue lighter fluid and he proceeded to squirt it and pour it all over my face and turned to Scott and did the same thing. Then he took the fluid and squirted it all over the floor in front of me and on the couch. I was sitting on the couch and Darrell was sitting in the chair."

Mr. Brooks said Trott continued to back out of the door while pouring lighter fluid on the floor towards the entrance.

"Then he took a cigarette lighter and tried very diligently, tried very hard to ignite the lighter fluid. He must have tried for at least 30 seconds flicking and flicking the lighter, trying to get it to ignite.

"Then eventually he just threw the lighter on the ground and before he left he warned me, threatened me not to call the Police."

Mr. Brooks said his next encounter was on a Saturday about two weeks later, when he was at home with his girlfriend Cathy. Trott entered through the door while he was in the bathroom and threatened him.

"He told me that if I paid money he would leave me alone and stop threatening me. This time he went to my kitchen sink and retrieved a large sharp knife.

"Then he snatched a cover off the couch and tied it around his neck to cover him, because he said he was going to cut me and he didn't want to get blood spurting on him."

Next, said Mr. Brooks, Trott made him sit on a chair with his hands across a table, rested a knife across his fingers and then started bouncing the hammer up and down on the knife.

He said his girlfriend Cathy screamed and begged Trott not to hurt him, but he blocked the door to stop her escaping and threw her down on a chair. "This time he took the large hammer and stated beating all over my legs and the top of my head."

Mr. Brooks said that Trott asked him how much it would be worth to stop the violence.

"At this time I was totally terrified for my life, but I named a price of $500," he told the jury, explaining that Trott again warned him not to go to the Police before he left.

"After that, Cathy and I sat there, both of us trembling, in tears, frightened, and talked a lot about what we should do."

Mr. Brooks said although he did not go to the Police on that occasion, he did after a number of further incidents through to the end of May where Trott would come around and try to barge into the house.

Cross-examined by defence lawyer Richard Horseman, Mr. Brooks agreed he had allowed Trott to stay a few nights at his home after first meeting him, but before the gun incident.

Asked why he would let someone who had already punched him stay at his home, Mr. Brooks replied: "Well, I try to give everybody a chance but I didn't realise the severity of his personality."

Mr. Darrell did not come to court to give evidence, but his Police statement of March 28, 2008 was read to the jury.

In it, he described how Trott struck him with a gun and another man stabbed him in the shoulder. Then, he said Trott doused him and Mr. Brooks in lighter fluid. "I was horrified that this guy was going to burn us to death in our apartment," he told the Police, adding later: "Kamel could not get the fluid to light. Had he, we would have both gone up in smoke."

He claimed that he reported this and other violent acts by Trott to the Police "but we do not seem to get any protection from the lunatic. I think the Police still believe we operate a crack house and these things are to be expected".

Trott, of Kitty's Lane, Hamilton Parish, is charged with two counts of assaulting Mr. Brooks and causing actual bodily harm, and one of aggravated burglary armed with an imitation firearm, where he inflicted actual bodily harm.

He also faces charges of throwing lighter fluid at Mr. Brooks and Mr. Darrell with intent to burn them.He denies all the charges and the case continues.