Daniel Hollands, 27, of Finn Street, did not apply for bail, while Payton Reiri, 22, of Daniel Street, was refused bail in the Warrnambool Magistrates Court.

They were remanded in custody until a filing hearing on September 22.

Police alleged Mr Hollands, Mr Reiri and other armed men went to a Portland home in Waratah Crescent on Thursday last week and bashed and stabbed a drug dealer. 

The victim suffered a severe laceration to his left cheek which exposed his teeth and required 27 stitches. 

Other injuries included multiple fractures to his arms, legs, fingers, knee, feet and face. He is expected to remain in a Melbourne hospital for about 10 weeks.

A 16-year-old girl was also hit with a baseball bat, suffering a fracture to her back, and the incident happened while there was a nine-year-old boy in the home. 

Detective Sergeant James Sullivan, of the armed crime squad, told the court the victim was a low-level drug dealer and Mr Hollands was his competition. He said the victim was told to stop trafficking drugs, threatened and told to leave Portland, which he did.

But he had recently returned and there was an $18,000 bounty on his head  for anyone who assaulted him.

Detective Sergeant Sullivan said the reason the girl was assaulted was because she had not told Mr Hollands and Mr Reiri the victim was back in town. He said the girl told officers that police had “signed her death warrant” if Mr Hollands and Mr Reiri were released from custody.

One of the offences the men have been charged with, intentionally causing serious injury in circumstances of gross violence, carries a minimum four-year jail sentence.

Detective Sergeant Sullivan said it was usual that the only question Mr Reiri asked of police was who had named him.

He said to call it a stabbing was to understate the action of Mr Hollands, with the victim’s wound going from high on the cheekbone to the jaw.

“He has deliberately run the blade along his face,” Detective Sergeant Sullivan said.

Detective Senior Constable Tim McKerracher said Mr Reiri was armed with a metal baseball bat and Mr Hollands with a knife.

He said the men surrounded the home and then forced entry by kicking in the front and back door. When the victim tried to barricade himself in a bedroom, the men forced their way in and struck him more than 50 times.

He was dragged out of the bedroom, struck about 200 times and then stabbed the man to the face by Mr Hollands while he was held down by Mr Reiri.

Detective Senior Constable McKerracher said police were hopeful of identifying other co-accused and now that the two men had been arrested it was likely other witnesses would come forward.

Magistrate John Lesser refused bail, saying Mr Reiri was an unacceptable risk of interfering with witnesses and reoffending.