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A thug who left a police officer scarred for life in a Samurai sword attack has been locked up indefinitely.

Richard Skeates will have to serve a minimum of five-and-a-half years behind bars before the parole board will consider whether it is safe to release him.

Judge Michael Lawson, QC, said of the injury to PC John Clark: "It is almost miraculous that the damage done was not fatal or caused severe mental damage by reason of a break in the scalp.

"Happily, the damage was not of a life-threatening nature, although it has left an unsightly and very obvious scar to his head."

Skeates, 46, denied wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm but was convicted by a jury.

On Thursday, Maidstone Crown Court heard that after the attack officers seized a collection of martial arts weapons from the house in St Hilda’s Way, Gravesend.

They included ninja stars, a smaller Samurai sword, a knife, three nunchukas, two scythes and two flick knives.

PC Clark and another officer had gone to Skeates’s home to arrest him for breaching an Anti Social Behaviour Order imposed on May 21 2006, banning him from being violent and possessing weapons.

Judge Lawson said if he had imposed a determinate sentence it would have been one of 11 years imprisonment.