A MAN who mounted a hammer attack on a love rival in a Redditch street must serve a minimum sentence of six years in jail.

Roy Cross, aged 37, was convicted by a jury at Worcester Crown Court of wounding Richard Edwards with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm.

Judge Michael Mott passed an indeterminate sentence for public protection.

Cross, of High Trees Close, Oakenshaw, can only be freed when the parole board consider he is no longer a danger.

In 1997 he hit a man over the head with a metal pole and had a long history of violent offences.

The judge told him that Redditch would be a quieter and safer place without him.

Prosecutor Tim Hannam described how the victim was walking home at 2am on June 14 when he was confronted by Cross between the Winyates Centre and Church Hill.

Cross produced a clawhammer and struck Mr Edwards a number of blows to the head and body. The victim's screams woke a woman householder from her sleep.

Mr Edwards needed stitches for scalp injuries but was lucky to escape any fractures.

Cross, who claimed in court he was a born-again Christian, maintained he was wrongly identified as the attacker.

The jury - who convicted him by a 11-1 majority - was told that the defendant and the victim were in dispute over a woman.

Judge Mott said Cross had "a terrible history of violence" and his conviction proved his claim that he was a reformed character was "complete humbug".

William Rickarby, defending, said he was a man who lost his temper during a confrontation.

He successfully argued that a life sentence - an alternative considered by the judge - was too severe a penalty at this stage in Cross's criminal career.