BRUTAL machete wielding thugs who burst into a pensioner’s home and inflicted horrific injuries have been convicted by a jury.

Fighting dramatically broke out in the dock at Bolton Crown Court as unanimous guilty verdicts were returned on Louis Hamilton, Ashton Holland and Macauley Heald following a two week trial.

Security staff dragged the defendants, shouting, to the cells and the court was cleared before, in the absence of the accused men, Judge Gioserano resumed the taking the verdicts from the shocked jury, who had spent more than a day deliberating.

Before the disturbance broke out, the jury had found Hamilton and Heald guilty of aggravated burglary at the Bury and Bolton Road home of 70-year-old Malcolm Holman and his wife Dorothy.

And then the jury also convicted 27-year-old Hamilton, of Hudson Close, Bolton, of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Holman, who had his arms hacked with a machete during the burglary.

After court was cleared Judge Gioserano said security staff were not satisfied that the hearing would pass peacefully if the defendants were to return to the dock.

Jurors, who had been visibly shocked and upset by the violence which occurred, were reassured that their remaining verdicts would be taken in the absence of the the defendants.

The jury members returned to court to also find 26-year-old Holland, of Barry Crescent, Worsley, and Heald, aged 20, of Ridyard Street, Little Hulton, guilty of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm.

Judge Gioserano adjourned sentencing until May 26 to allow for reports to be prepared assessing the dangerousness of the three men and their co-accused, Holland’s older brother Jacob Holland, aged 27, of no fixed address and Ziggy Cawley, 23, of Rollesby Close, Bury, who previously pleaded guilty to both charges.

Last week, at Minshull Street Crown Court, Cawley was convicted of a separate offence of violent disorder in Bury and will also be sentenced for it on May 26.

During the trial the jury heard how five hooded men burst into the Holman’s detached home in Higher Ainsworth at around 7.40am on April 17 last year.

The gang had been in a Peugeot car which had broken down and, armed with a machete, they walked along the main road until they got to the Holmans’ home and decided to burst in and steal keys to the Mercedes and VW Golf cars parked outside.

Mr Holman had just gone downstairs to make a cup of tea when the gang kicked the front door in and confronted him, demanding he hand over keys.

The shocked pensioner demanded they leave but was then attacked with the machete.

“He defensively raised his arms and received blows with that weapon to both of his arms causing serious injuries,” said Alaric Bassano, prosecuting.

One of the gang told Mrs Holman, who had been in bed and came downstairs when she heard the shouting: “I’m sorry, just give him the keys. He’s crazy.”

Hamilton argued in court that he had not been part of a plan to raid the house and even claimed that he had tried to act as a peacemaker, preventing the pensioner being injured further. But the jury saw through his lies and those of Holland and Heald who claimed they played no part in harming Mr Holman.

The gang fled, with Cawley running across fields to be arrested at a farm nearby a short time later.

Ashton Holland and Macauley Heald set off in the VW Golf , abandoning it a short distance away in Starling Road and then stealing alcohol from a house garage before being caught and arrested nearby.

Jacob Holland and Hamilton made off in the Mercedes, which was later found near Ainsworth Road, the machete, stained with Mr Holman’s blood, still inside.

All five members of the gang have been remanded in custody until the sentencing hearing.