Girl, 17, slashed 35 times

A girl of 17 was slashed 35 times on her face, arms and hands by a masked man who ordered her to strip at a beauty spot, a court heart today.

Powerfully-built Ian Haywood, 37, rocked backwards and forwards with each frenzied blow on his defenceless victim, it is claimed.

He loomed out of the darkness as the girl, a student, and her 19-year-old boyfriend sat in their car on the Sussex Downs.

Balaclava-clad Haywood held them up at gunpoint and hit the boyfriend on the head with his pistol before locking him in the boot , the Old Bailey was told.

Miss Christine Laing prosecuting said Haywood pushed the girl to the ground and ordered her to take off her clothes. Miss Laing added: "He knelt on her arms and repeated that she should strip.

"He stabbed her first to the face. He stabbed her arms and hands as she put them up to protect herself. All the blows were delivered with considerable force. She was screaming for her boyfriend to help her. She remembers that each time he delivered a blow he would step back and forwards again as he delivered the next.

"Every way she turned he would stab her somewhere else. From the ferocity of the attack she had no doubt that he was trying to kill her."

While her boyfriend was desperately trying to force his way out of the boot, the girl kicked Haywood in the groin, the court heard. He staggered back and she collapsed in a heap and played dead. Haywood ran back to his car and drove away.

She needed 143 stitches in her wounds but was able to give police a description of Haywood and part of the registration number of his car, the court heard. Doctors treated her for wounds to her face, neck, arms, hands and chest. Many of the blows had struck bone, tendons in her hands were damaged and she has been left with permanent scarring to her lower face.

The Old Bailey was told that Haywood first demanded the couple's money and mobile phones when he surprised them in a car park at Ditchling Common County Park. The gun turned out to be a starting pistol.

The court heard that friends of the couple arrived at the beauty spot and were able to drive them to hospital.

Haywood of Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex, denies attempted murder, attempted rape, false imprisonment and two charges of attempted robbery in January last year.

The case continues.