Woman describes terrifying assault
A WOMAN has described how a former neighbour and work colleague hither, kicked her and jumped on her face.
She sustained life-threatening injuries in the vicious attack.
She told police how she opened the door to Andrew Hurns, who she had worked with at the B&Q outlet in Worksop.
Hurns, who used to live in the same street as her in Tunnel Road, Retford, “seemed to be in a strange mood,” the woman told police in a video interview played at Hurns’ trial at Nottingham Crown Court yesterday.
Hurns, 31, of Edgbaston Drive, Retford, denies attempted murder.
She had previously offered him a lift to work, if the weather was bad, and thought he had changed his mind when he turned up at her door.
Hurns put his foot in the door. and then pushed it open.
“I was hit to the side of my head and I fell to the floor,” she recalled.
She got back up before Hurns allegedly said something along the lines of “I want jewellery or cash”. She said she hadn’t got any. Her jewellery had been stolen in a burglary in May.
“I think I remember being kicked in the head. I remember being kicked in the ribs several times.”
She recalled looking up and seeing shoes “coming down on me”.
She also told police how Hurns leaned on the window and started jumping on her face.
“I was stunned,” she said. “I was completely stunned about the whole thing. I thought ‘I’ve got to get out of the situation’.”
The jury heard on Monday that neighbours had called police.
The victim sustained “lifethreatening” injuries to her face so severe she had great difficulty breathing, said Andrew Copeland, prosecuting.
An emergency tracheotomy had to be performed.
Mr Copeland said: “The defendant does not dispute he caused those injuries but says, ‘I’m not guilty of attempted murder’. On an earlier occasion in these proceedings, he pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
“The Crown’s case is such was the ferocity of this attack, he only had one thing in his mind at the time; that was not to cause serious injury but to kill her.”
The trial continues