A young mum wept as she recalled how three masked men burst into her bedroom as she slept and hacked the father of her child to death with an axe and a sword.

Kareena Modashia, of Woodside, was three months pregnant when her boyfriend Danny Gough was dragged from their bed and brutally butchered in the early hours of the morning.

The three balaclava-clad killers shouted 'police' before storming the couple's home in Stockbury Road and spraying the couple, as well as Miss Modashia's mother, with caustic ammonia.

Stephen Dougherty, 35, of Essex, is alleged to have masterminded the killing in revenge for an attack on his friend Sam Monteith, 32, who is also charged with Mr Gough's murder.

Mr Monteith, of Brighton Road, Sutton, had been stabbed and sprayed with ammonia by a gang involving Mr Gough some six weeks earlier.

The two friends allegedly recruited Paul West, 29, originally from Sutton but now living in Slough, to help plot and carry out the killing "to show they were not to be trifled with".

Miss Modashia sobbed as she recounted the horrific attack, carried out in complete silence in December 2010, in court yesterday.

She told the Old Bailey: "I heard a bang, someone coming through the door, it was really loud and woke me up.

"Someone shouted - police, police - there were footsteps on the stairs and next thing I knew they was in the room.

"There was a knife in the room which he [Danny] went and grabbed when we first heard the bang but then he put it down because I thought we were being raided when they shouted 'police'.

"They entered the room, three guys, and Danny got up and then they attacked him.

"They ran straight over to Danny, I went to get up and one of the guys squirted something in my face.

"My eyes started to instantly burn, I grabbed the pillow to try and wipe it off and by that time all three of them were on Danny.

"There was no sounds they were just attacking him, I thought they were fighting - kicking and punching.

She added: "I was in shock, I didn't know what was going on.

"Then I heard someone say 'dead' I thought it was Danny saying I was dead but obviously it wasn't, it must have been one of the people that said he's dead.

"They ran out the room and then I heard my mum come down the stairs, I went to get off the bed and the whole floor was wet.

"My mum ran in and she had been sprayed as well, she was crying and was in a right state.

"Danny was on the floor he was just laying there. I was on the bed wearing just my underwear. The floor was wet, it was blood."

Miss Modashia had been in a relationship with Mr Gough - who sometimes took his stepdad's name, McGinty - for three years before his death. She gave birth to their son on June 18, 2011.

Yesterday she told the court Mr Gough had been thrilled about being a father. Miss Modashia said: "When we found out I was expecting he was so excited, he was telling everyone."

Mr Gough spent most nights at Miss Modashia's mother's house, where he was murdered.

The court heard last week how Mr Gough's killers kept him under surveillance in the weeks leading up to his murder and knew which room he was sleeping in.

They inflicted 32 wounds, some 23cm deep, in the attack, estimated by Miss Modashia to have lasted less than four minutes.

The killing marked the climax of a feud of escalating violence that began in June 2010 when Mr Gough's friend Leanne Meredith was involved in a fight with Mr Dougherty and Mr Monteith.

On November 3, Mr Monteith was attacked inside his home, then Friars Court in Wallington, by three men including Mr Gough. He suffered a 10cm gash to his face and burns from the ammonia thrown in his eyes.

After that attack, the court heard, Mr Dougherty sent menacing texts to Mr Gough warning him he had been "paid for" and instructing him to "tell that Leanne that she has started something that you ain't big enough to handle".

But James Scobie, Mr Dougherty's defence barrister, told the jury to "take nothing for granted" and said promised to name other enemies of Mr Gough "who could possibly have committed this barbaric butchery."

Mr Dougherty and Mr West deny murder. Mr Monteith, currently unfit to stand trial, is to before the court.

The trial continues.

 

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