A "JEALOUS and paranoid" Oldbury mother has been accused of being behind a plot to kill her partner.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard Samson Masih was left for dead after a brutal street attack by a gang armed with weapons including a machete and an iron bar.

He was the victim of the "vicious and sustained" attack which had been set up by 43-year-old Balbir Kaur, alleged Robert Price prosecuting.

He said Mr Masih sustained a fractured skull, bleeding on the brain and broken vertebrae in his back after he was repeatedly struck with weapons, punched, kicked and stamped on by the gang.

The 42-year-old of Bloxcidge Street, Oldbury who had been in a relationship with Kaur also suffered a fractured leg, broken bones in his face and deep skull lacerations.

Mr Price told a jury: "We say it is a matter of luck rather than judgement that he survived."

He added the victim suffered "extremely grave" injuries, he had to spend a month in hospital because of the "precarious" state of his health and it was nearly three months later before he could be interviewed by police.

Mr Price stressed it was clear that the people behind the brutal attack were intent on ending his life with Kaur having earlier told her son "Kill him. Hurt him. Why is he still standing."

He told the eight-man four-woman jury that there were difficulties and tensions in the relationship between Mr Masih and Kaur and she had told her family she had been mistreated on a number of occasions.

This was strenuously denied by Mr Masih, said Mr Price, who went on: "Nothing could ever begin to justify what happened to this man and the nature of the attack."

He said the attack had been set up Kaur and it was delivered by her 21-year-old son Manvir Singh, his friend Zaaqir Islaam and other men who were still at large.

"It was a planned and organised attack," said Mr Price, with Mr Masih being lured to Kaur's flat in Thompson Road, Oldbury.

Arrangements had already been made with the son for the attack to be carried out and when Mr Masih left the flat he was grabbed around the throat before being knocked to the ground.

The other men then joined in the brutal assault and Mr Masih unconscious when he was left for dead by the gang.

Afterwards, it was alleged Singh sent a text message to his mother which read, "I love you so much I would kill for you. I was such a bad kid I know. But I will always love you."

Witnesses to the attack saw Mr Masih's head being kicked like a football while "chopping" blows from the weapons rained down with blunt force in an incident captured on CCTV.

Blood stains were later found in a VW car used by the gang to leave the scene linking Singh and Islaam to the attack.

When questioned later Singh maintained he had been acting in self-defence while Kaur told officers she feared further violence at the hands of Mr Masih.

She agreed she had told her son to "Come and kill him" but said the words were spoken in anger.

It was Kaur who made the arrangements for the violence and she encouraged her son to kill him alleged Mr Price.

She got Mr Masih to the scene having "developed deep seated animosity and hatred" for her partner. Singh was the prime mover behind the violence while Islaam joined in and provided the transport.

Kaur has pleaded not guilty to inciting murder while Singh, of no fixed address, and 20-year-old Islaam of Lime Road, Wednesbury, have pleaded not guilty to attempted murder.

The two men have also denied inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent and the trial - expected to last for up the three weeks - is continuing.