Partially buried, covered in dirt, wild hair and his pants around his ankles.

That’s how police found Steven Lin after he violently attacked Nick Skarvelis.

Lin was found by police partially buried, covered in dirt, wild hair and his pants around his ankles after he violently attacked Nick Skarvelis. A Current Affair

“He had that look in his eyes, like he just wanted to kill me,” Skarvelis told A Current Affair.

The father-of-three was standing on his front balcony in a leafy suburb of Wollongong in May last year when Lin emerged from the bushes across the road.

“I thought, ‘I’m not gonna let him up here’, so I started walking down the stairs, got to halfway, and said, ‘are you right there?’ and that’s when he mumbled, ‘I’m going to kill you’.”

Skarvelis says Lin then hit him across the face with a metal pole.

Skarvelis tried to fend off Lin, running up the front staircase before Lin threw him over the railing and onto the concrete footpath below A Current Affair

Skarvelis tried to fend off Lin, running up the front staircase before Lin threw him over the railing and onto the concrete footpath below.

“I had a fractured scapula, five broken ribs. I broke a pinky [finger], broke a toe … and a fractured cheekbone,” he said.

Skarvelis managed to get back inside his house where he called police, but it wasn’t until Lin heard the sirens that he fled.

The former celebrity dentist was found by police almost an hour later partially buried in a nearby backyard.

“Dug a hole in the garden and buried himself with leaves and everything … it was just his eyeballs you could see. It was like the movies,” Skarvelis said.That moment played out in police bodyworn footage exclusively obtained by A Current Affair.

NSW Police officers filmed handcuffing Lin before escorting him to a nearby police van where he was questioned. A Current Affair

NSW Police officers filmed handcuffing Lin before escorting him to a nearby police van where he was questioned.

“I was just going for a run and then there was police,” Lin mumbles in the footage.“I just felt a bit weird … I just kind of skipped into the bush and I laid down.”

Despite Lin denying getting into a scuffle with Skarvelis – a complete stranger – he was later charged with assault.

He was then granted bail.

“It was only a matter of time until someone was actually going to be killed by him,” said Chloe Paul, another victim of Lin.

Chloe Paul and her neighbour Christine Campeau were violently attacked by Lin just 10 months after Skarvelis. A Current Affair

Paul and her neighbour Christine Campeau were violently attacked by Lin just 10 months after Skarvelis.

“When I close my eyes I see him hitting me, he was incessant. I had about 12 big blows in the back of my head,” Campeau told Ally Langdon during an interview in the days following the assault.

Paul and Campeau fought back, and Lin’s frenzy soon came to an end when he was shot dead by police.

“I’m glad he’s not still out there, because there’d be more victims for sure”, Paul said.