​A woman accused of crying rape yesterday told a jury her attacker hacked at her clothing with a knife.

Gail Sherwood said she was smashed over the head with a milk bottle at her home before her abductor drove her away and hacked at her pyjamas with a knife.

The 52-year-old said a man who had been stalking her had taken her from her home with an accomplice.

Sherwood, of Thrupp, near Stroud, said she was driven up a bumpy track and thrown out of the vehicle bound and gagged.

She claimed she tried to fight off her attacker, stabbing him in his left shoulder.

However she said the man whipped the knife out of her hand and cut her before slashing her leg

He then used it to try to hack her pyjama vest top off, cutting her chest, she added.

The mother-of-three sobbed as she denied making the story up under cross examination.

The jury had earlier heard that Sherwood told police she had made up the rape allegations because she was lonely and attention seeking.

But she later withdrew the admissions.

She denies three charges of perverting the course of justice.

Cross-examined in her trial at Bristol Crown Court, Sherwood told how she was kidnapped and raped on June 1, 2008.

She said she had been awoken by her dogs barking at 12.30am then later was disturbed by the beeper on her security alarm.

She said she went downstairs to investigate three times and on the last occasion walked into her front room and noticed the room was very cold.

“I just remember a figure coming out from behind the curtain. Then I just remember being hit on the head. Then I don’t remember anything,” said Sherwood.

She said her “stalker” had picked her locks several times before, had used a key on at least one occasion and had left a flower and a playing card on her bed.

Sherwood said she didn’t know what route her abductor had taken to get to and from her home, however when she returned her garden was a mess with plants trampled down and large garden ornaments overturned.

A neighbour told police they had seen two people arrive at her address at 12.30am, she said.

 

She had lunged a knife at her attacker, she claimed, stabbing him in the shoulder.

There was a struggle as he “whipped” it from her and cut her hand, she added.

But Simon Morgan, prosecuting, said a doctor who saw the wound believed it was a controlled cut by someone running a knife down the hand.

He said: “I suggest that injury was self inflicted.”

Sherwood replied: “I have never self inflicted any injury ever.”

She added another knife injury to her chest was caused as the man tried to hack off her pyjama vest top.

Jurors saw the grey garment, which had a picture of a cartoon sheep on it and slashes at the top, exhibited in court.

Sherwood said the knife was the only item with her abductor’s DNA on it and it had been lost by the police.

Quizzed about why she had withdrawn her rape allegation, Sherwood said she was told if she didn’t she would be “going to prison and her children would go into care”.

The trial continues.