A Kingston University student who was set upon by a gang of up to 15 people and needed 51 stitches, told a court about his terrifying ordeal last week.

Sharif Alturaihi, who was a student when he was attacked in May 2008, gave evidence at Kingston Crown Court on Wednesday, September 30, as three defendants stood trial for unlawful wounding and wounding with intent.

Satnam S Gill, from Slough, Sumit K Selli, from Hayes, and Jugdeep Grewal, from Isleworth, were fellow students at Kingston University at the time but all deny involvement.

During a police interview, Mr Alturaihi produced a sheet of paper with three names on it – the same names as the defendants'.

He told the court it was handed to him in hospital, but, when pressed under oath to reveal who handed him the names, which included student ID numbers, he refused.

He told the defence for Mr Gill, who started the cross-examination, that: “He asked me not to give his name because he doesn’t want to be recognised or mentioned at all.”

He did confirm that a man passed the list to him while he was in hospital, after another female had handed it to him.

The incident occurred in the early hours of May 9, as Mr Alturaihi left the university library in the Kingston Hill campus, to fetch a book from his car, the court heard.

Recalling the incident, Mr Alturaihi said before he could reach his car he saw two men “jogging” towards him.

He recognised them from the day before and had seen them around university a couple of times, the court heard.

He told the court “suspect one”, who he later identified as Mr Grewal to police, hit him over the head.

Mr Alturaihi said: “I wasn’t sure what it was but I’m sure it was a metal object. I looked clearly [at the suspect] as I was falling.”

He then described the second suspect, who he told the court he thought to be Mr Selli.

He said: “I was on the floor but I was still kind of looking up and suspect two had a knife. I was being hit with it. I was being stabbed.”

He told the court a group of between 12 and 15 people began kicking him, and he recognised one of them as suspect three, Mr Gill.

Mr Alturaihi said: “They were shouting directly at me ‘die, die, die’.”

The injured student then flagged down a car, which happened to be his friend’s, and he was driven to hospital.

The trial continues.