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The service is 80% self-sufficient with its funding but its director of operations James Deakin said more needed to be done to fund services helping people with their recovery.

Only when he got to his vehicle did Mr Deakin realise that someone was crouched down behind him.

That attack in St Helens on 14 April 2019, which came very close to permanently blinding Mr Deakin, was carried out by hitman-for-hire Jonathan Gordon, a member of a north Liverpool street gang called the Deli Mob.

While the 39-year-old was not charged with ordering the attack on Mr Deakin, he did discuss it with Gordon when planning how to carry out similar assaults.

Gordon spoke about his earlier attack on Mr Deakin, complaining that the St Helens man had "got to the sink" to wash his face and save his eyesight.