A man has been jailed for 22 years in Belfast for what the judge described as the most vicious sectarian attack the court had encountered in recent years.
In October 2003 Michael Reid, a Catholic visiting a Protestant friend in Ballymena, was seriously assaulted by three other men who had discovered he was a Catholic.
He was stabbed sixteen times, beaten with a heavy object, and strangled with a telephone cable.
As he lay on the kitchen floor, Mr Reid pretended to be dead, during which time he heard his assailants talk about getting a saw to cut up his body to dispose of it.
When two of the attackers left to get the saw, Mr Reid escaped from the house.
For his part in the attack, 35 year old Aaron White was sent to prison for 22 years. His brother Neil White is already serving a sixteen year term for the attempted murder.
The judge said the offence was so serious he had considered imposing a life sentence on Aaron White.
