A Polish cleaner was left for dead with horrific internal injuries after a “relentless and brutal assault” outside his home.
Keith Porter, 21, attacked Jaroslaw Janeczek in Aberdeen’s Tillydrone area on July 11 this year.
During the assault, he grabbed items such as a mop and brushes from the boot of the cleaner’s vehicle.
Mr Janeczek, 39, was initially “whipped and stabbed” with the implements before one was embedded in him.
It penetrated his stomach and liver and only narrowly missed his heart.
Porter, of the city’s Formartine Road, admitted attempted murder when he appeared at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday.
His friend, 24-year-old George Stewart – of Tillydrone – faced the same allegation but yesterday pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of severe injury, which was accepted by the Crown.
An accusation that the attack was racially motivated was deleted from the libel.
The court heard that Mr Janeczek, who is still getting treatment in hospital, was getting his house keys out of his car after being dropped at his flat in Alexander Drive at about 2am when he was attacked.
Advocate depute Jonathan Brodie QC, prosecuting, told the court that Porter grabbed mops and brushes from the car and must have “kicked or stamped” the wood into his victim during the assault.
Porter’s counsel, Jack Davidson QC, said his client had “lost self control”. He was sentenced to probation two days before the attack for an assault and in 2006, he was also given a three-and-a-half-year detention for assault to severe injury.
Stephen McGowan, district procurator fiscal for Aberdeen, said: “This was a horrific and disturbing attack on a defenceless man.
“Jaroslaw Janeczek was dragged from his car and subjected to a relentless and brutal assault.
“Had it not been for the skill of the surgeons during an eight-hour operation, Mr Janeczek would have died from the terrible injuries he sustained.”
Detective Inspector Cammy Preston, of Grampian Police, said: “This brutal and barbaric attack displayed a level of violence which is almost incomprehensible.
“It was a random attack on an innocent man who had come to this country to better his life and that of his family.
“Jaroslaw’s injuries were among the worst I have ever seen in the 25 years I have been a police officer.”
An Aberdeen Polish Association spokesman said: “What happened to Jaroslaw was a senseless attack that shocked the whole community.
“He is a hard-working man and a law-abiding citizen who would do anything to help someone in need.”
Sentence was deferred for reports until December 17 and Porter and Stewart were both remanded in custody.