A former prostitute who was stabbed 43 times told the Court how her attacker returned twice to try to kill her.

Nichola Jane Hirst said that despite pleading with the knifeman to stop, he carried on stabbing her, saying she had to die so she could not identify him.

Security guard Noel John Dooley, 42, of Bradford, denies attempting to murder Miss Hirst in the early hours of Sunday, October 29, last year.

Giving evidence, smartly dressed in a grey suit, the tearful 27-year-old told the jury at Leeds Crown Court yesterday that she had worked as a street prostitute in the red light area of Bradford for about a year and a half.

On the night of the attack, she said Dooley approached her at the junction of Listerhills Road and Richmond Road. He offered to pay her £20 for a sex act.

They walked to an industrial unit and stopped near a skip, where Miss Hirst reached into her bag for a condom.

As she did, she noticed Dooley, who lived in a caravan in nearby Ashley Mills, had pulled out a knife with a six-inch blade and then demanded money.

Miss Hirst said Dooley ordered her to undo her top, get on her knees and perform a sex act on him.

She told the court: "He had the knife at my throat. I was trying to make an emergency phone call, but it makes a noise when you press the mobile. He was getting really angry and said 'Stop messing around. Hurry up'. He said he was going to kill me, to stab me."

She told how she managed to struggle free and ran between the two buildings. "I started screaming for help, and I felt a hand around my mouth, and I remember feeling a stabbing sensation and a warm, trickling feeling in my back," she said.

"He was saying 'It's your own fault, it's your own fault'. I bit his hand and he pushed me to the floor."

Miss Hirst, who broke down in tears a number of times in the witness box, said she fell on all fours and then felt Dooley stab her about 20 times in her back. She then described how he continued to stab her, despite her pleas to stop.

She told the jury how she passed out, and when she regained consciousness, spotted her mobile phone in pieces on the floor in front of her. As she tried to reassemble it to make an emergency call for help, she told the court how Dooley walked back, stopped her from doing so and began to stab her again.

She told the jury that she rolled on to her front and managed to "boot out" at Dooley, and caught him with her right foot, and the knife stuck in her shoe.

"Then he stabbed me in the chest and I couldn't breathe," she said.

Miss Hirst said she passed out again for a second time, but when she came to, Dooley stabbed her a couple more times.