LAUREN HUXLEY nearly died after being so severely beaten that the middle of her face was completely detached from her skull, a jury has been told.

The marketing student, then 18, was bashed with a pair of metal fibro cutters and left to die in the garage of her family's Northmead home on November 9, 2005. She was doused in petrol and the house was set alight.

A Northmead man, Robert Black Farmer, 39, is on trial in the NSW Supreme Court accused of her attempted murder and arson.