Jordan Bell denies a “grievous” attack as part of a group of four balaclava-clad men in Shoreham.
A group “burst in” to the garden of an “innocent” family in Nicolson Drive, where young woman Cerys Evans and her boyfriend Lewis Harrington were ordered to hand over cash.
Ms Evans was struck about the head, and as she screamed out, her father David Evans rushed out into the garden.
But Mr Evans was stabbed by a member of the gang as he “tussled” with the group of four, who later fled the scene.
Bell, aged 20, told Hove Crown Court he was groomed by a drugs gang since the age of 13 or 14, and feared reprisals.