AN elderly Roman Catholic priest was stabbed repeatedly in the chest by a man who wanted to steal his £23,000 BMW car, a court heard.
Fr Michael Ingwell, 71, suffered two collapsed lungs when he was attacked with his own knife at the Presbytery on Clarence Street, off Gibbet Street, Halifax, on the evening of November 29.
Asad Abbas, 20, of Harvest Street - a few hundred yards away - denied attempted murder at Bradford Crown Court. But he pleaded guilty to burglary at an earlier hearing.
Fr Ingwell, who has been priest of St Marie's Church for 13 years, spent two weeks in hospital.
The court was told he had been stabbed 14 times in the chest and back with a knife he kept for opening letters in his study.
He told the jury he curled up on his bathroom floor to protect himself. The blows were strong enough to bend the knife's 5in blade.
Fr Ingwell said he thought he was being punched. It was only later that he realised a knife had been used.
The case continues.
