A POLICE video of an interview with a 96-year-old D Day veteran attacked with a claw hammer in his own home has been played to a court.

Jim Booth spoke to officers from his bed in Musgrove Park Hospital just two days after he suffered life threatening injuries in the incident in Gipsy Lane, Taunton.

A recording of the interview was played to Taunton Crown Court, where Joseph Isaacs, 40, of no fixed address, is on trial accused of attempted murder.

Mr Booth told how he drove home from his daughter's house on the afternoon of November 22 last year and parked his car in his garage.

As he carried out domestic chores, including feeding his two cats, the door bell rang.

A man at the door said there was a problem with a tile on the roof of the bungalow and offered to repair it at a good price.

Mr Booth told him: "Thanks, but I have got a friend who does building things who will do it for me...you can't help me, sorry."

The man then edged himself into the property.

"He was following me into the house," Mr Booth told police.

"Then he just approached me shouting, 'Money, money, money'.

"Then he came rushing at me. He had this big hammer and started smashing away."

Mr Booth moved away from his attacker, who continued shouting at him, in the passageway of his home.

He said: "I just moved back, but he was running after me hitting me all the time."

He added: "I must have collapsed and fallen on the floor right in the sitting room there. He must have gone then.

"I remember lying down, thinking, 'Oh, my God, I'm dying' or something like that."

Mr Booth was unable to find his mobile to call 999 and so left the bungalow and crawled across the road to a neighbour, who alerted the emergency services.

Isaacs denies attempted murder, but Miss Drake, prosecuting, told the jury he has admitted several other charges relating to the incident.

He has pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent; aggravated burglary; and seven counts of fraud for using or trying to use a bank card stolen from Mr Booth.

Miss Drake is arguing that Isaacs intended to kill his victim during the attack.

She told the court: "Mr Isaacs was desperate. Mr Booth's stubborness angered him. He decided to use force to get something of value.

"At that moment, he decided to kill him."

Earlier the court was told that forensic evidence showed Mr Booth had moved away and ended up lying under a table in his living room as he had been dripping a trail of blood.

And a DNA test on blood on Isaac's jeans after he was arrested two days after the attack matched Mr Booth's.