Rhyl’s “pop man” told how he was hit over the head and then stabbed to the stomach as he came to the end of his rounds late one night last summer.

William Clarkson said that he was about to see his last customer before going home and then leaving on holiday when the incident happened.

He pulled up in Rhydwen Drive and was about to knock on a regular customer’s door just before 11pm on August 25 last year when a man approached and asked if he could buy some sweets from his van.

As he was serving the man at the back of the vehicle, he said that he heard the front door of the van close and when he popped his head around saw two men walking away.

Fearing that they had taken something from the vehicle, he called out to them.

But they turned, approached him, and one struck him to the head with an extendable baton, cutting his head open, he told a jury at Mold Crown Court.

A second man then approached him and Mr Clarkson said that he believed that he had been punched in the stomach.

But it turned out that he had been stabbed, the lining of the stomach wall had been pierced and he would need future surgery for a hernia, he explained.

Brothers Chad Daniels, aged 19, of Balmoral Grove in Rhyl and Brad Daniels, aged 18, of East Parade, Rhyl, both deny a charge of wounding Mr Clarkson with intent to cause him GBH.

Chad Daniels also denies on the same night wounding his own aunt Victoria Woods with intent, two charges of damaging car windscreens, and attempting to rob a stranger in the street, David Smith.

Prosecuting barrister Mr Gareth Roberts said that the brothers had gone “on a spree of serious violence.”

It was, he said, a nasty attack on an innocent man trying to sell sweets and pop from the back of his vehicle.

Mr Roberts alleged that Chad Daniels armed himself with a flick baton and hit him twice around the head.

The complainant was punched and kicked and as he started to defend himself he believed he was being punched.

It was the prosecution case that Brad Daniels had stabbed him to the stomach.

He could not raise the alarm because his phone was missing from the front of the vehicle and he drove to a taxi firm where the alarm was raised.

Mr Clarkson, who said that he was known as “the pop man”, or “the sweetie man” after working on a self employed basis in Rhyl and Old Colwyn for some years.

He said that at one stage during the incident one of the men said “you have got money in there. Give us your money.”

The prosecutor alleged that after the incident the brothers went to the home of their aunt Victoria Wood where it was claimed Chad Daniels had a baton and Brad said that he had stabbed someone and wanted to change his clothes.

It was alleged that he started to clean a knife in the sink, they were asked to leave, and it was alleged that Chad Daniels stabbed his aunt to the right arm and also caused a serious laceration to the scalp which needed 18 stitches and plastic surgery.

Mr Roberts alleged that he smashed the windscreens of two vehicles in the street before attempting to rob a stranger David Smith.

The prosecutor said that Chad Daniels asked him for a £1, then produced a baton and threatened him saying “give me £20” but then left as the victim tried to placate him and got change from his pocket.

Proceeding.