A masked knifeman left a teenage girl with the worst injuries that the surgeon who treated her had ever seen.

The 17-year-old was repeatedly stabbed by a masked man as she sat in a car with her boyfriend at a remote car park at Ditchling Common.

Specialist Derek Harborne told the Old Bailey the 17-year-old girl's injuries were "in my experience, one of the worst repeated stabbings that I have seen".

Mr Harborne, accident and emergency consultant at the Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath, said a neck injury "could have been fatal".

Some of the 35 stab wounds had cut down to the bone, leaving tendon damage to the hands and scarring to the face.

Mr Harborne, whose statements were read to the jury, said it was fortunate that wounds to the chest struck bone rather than piercing organs.

Unemployed Ian Haywood, 37, of Willow Way, Hurstpierpoint, denies attempted murder, attempted rape, false imprisonment and two offences of attempted robbery.

He allegedly told police he was not the man who attacked the girl and her 19-year-old boyfriend on January 18 last year.

The teenagers were held up by a powerfully built man who threatened them with a gun and knife and tried to rob them, said Christine Laing, prosecuting.

He fired the gun, hit the youth over the head and locked him in the boot of his car in.

He then ordered the girlfriend to strip when she said she had no money or mobile phone, Miss Laing said.

When the teenager resisted what she thought would turn into a rape attack, the man stabbed her until she "played dead".

She was taken to hospital where she needed 143 stitches.

Haywood was arrested after his wife, Ann, contacted police.

Miss Laing said the gun, which was only capable of firing blanks, was never recovered.

But the blade of a knife was found near the scene of the attack.

The trial continues.