Motorcycle rider, 23, 'could have been decapitated' after he was garrotted by a dog lead strung across his path by middle-aged walkers

A motorcyclist feared he was going to die after two middle-aged walkers garrotted him with a dog lead by stretching it across his path.

Medics told Chris Richmond he could have been decapitated by the lead after he was taken to hospital with burns and bruising on his neck.

The factory worker, of Newton Heath, Manchester, was left in shock and unable to breathe.

Police are seeking a man and a woman for the attack, which they are treating as grievous bodily harm.

The attack happened after Mr Richmond, 23, and two friends approached some teenagers who were riding a green 125cc motorbike on grass in the Failsworth area of the city.

He and his friends asked for a turn on the bike. He believes he was travelling at about 20mph when he hit the lead.

He said: 'I remember the woman giving me a dirty look beforehand, as if to say, "You shouldn’t be doing that".

'Perhaps I shouldn’t have been but that was no way to react. You don’t expect that from middle-aged people.

'They could have called the police and they would have moved us on.

'I couldn’t breathe and thought I was going to die.'

Mr Richmond, a father of one, had been out of work for two months but completed an eight-hour factory shift the day after the attack.

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