WILTSHIRE TIMES EXCLUSIVE: STAB victim Matthew Tee has spoken for the first time about the savage bottle attack that almost killed him.

Mr Tee, 29, could have bled to death from deep slash and stab wounds to his hand, arm, chest and head inflicted in a fight with three men outside his Trowbridge home.

This week his family have made a public appeal for help in catching the men responsible so they can be brought to justice.

Detectives have spent three weeks quizzing residents and eyewitnesses, but believe crucial information is being withheld because people are too scared or unwilling to name the culprits.

Mr Tee, who is staying in a hostel with his wife Tricia, 25, and 22-month-old son Josh, spoke for the first time about his close brush with death and quashed rumours surrounding the death of a 21-year-old girl in his Trowbridge flat in 2001.

The 29-year-old, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, said an onslaught of cruel jibes and torments led to the fight outside his Sheepcote Barton home.

"It is true I caused the trouble but I was upset because of what they were saying about me and my wife," he said.

"I don't know any of those men by name. I saw there was a Lambrusco bottle. I said 'put it down and fight me with your fists'. I admit I threw the first punch.

"They hit me over the head with the bottle first then slashed my arm and stabbed me in the shoulder.

"I didn't realise how badly I had been injured. I walked back to my house and my arm was open down to the bone.

"The doctors told me I could have bled to death.

"Someone knows who did this to me but they are not saying anything."

Mr Tee was in hospital for more than a week, needing 40 stitches to repair deep wounds.

Last week residents in Sheepcote Barton insisted they had helped police all they could with the inquiry.

Sister Angela Lambert, 36, of St Johns Road, Frome, said the attack had sickened her.

"I can understand people are frightened to come forward as they are worried about retribution," she said.

"But these people are violent and at the end of the day they could do it again.

"People need to think it could be one of their teenage sons or daughters at the end of it next time.

"It is lucky these men are not facing a murder hunt. In my view they intended to really hurt or kill him."

She added: "People don't have the understanding. If they met someone with schizophrenia or made themselves aware of the condition they would realise they are not the monsters they are portrayed to be."

Mr Tee said his hell-raising reputation was far from the truth and hopes to put a stop to the rumours surrounding the death of Emily Farahar, 21, who died from a drugs overdose in his former Langford Road flat.

"I wasn't doing heroin. I met Emily at Green Lane Hospital and let her stay in my flat. I was just friends with her," he said.

"I had no idea what she and the other lad were doing. It was really difficult to live in that flat after what happened.

"People are giving me a bad reputation and judging me before they even know me."