A woman accused to trying to kill her husband during a bondage sex session told a jury he actually attacked her when she told him she was a fraud.

Dena Thompson said 42-year-old Richard Thompson went for her with a knife when he found out she lied about winning £300,000 on the National Lottery.

She struck out with a baseball bat to defend herself after the row over money, Lewes Crown Court heard.

Thompson, 40, denies attempting to murder her husband at their home in Rustington on January 2.

Mr Thompson has told the court that his wife tied him up for a sex session and then attacked him with a baseball bat and a carving knife.

The prosecution alleges that Thompson planned to kill her husband because she was too scared to tell him she had lied about her wealth and that she had stolen his money.

Thompson told the jury that it was after she told her husband of her dishonesty that he attacked her.

"I said to him that there was no money, there was never a Lottery win, that everything was a lie. He came for me and I struck out," she said.

Asked why she had decided to tell him this, she added: "He was just pushing and pushing, saying when is your Lottery money coming in?"

Thompson had lied about the Lottery win soon after marrying her husband in April last year, and claimed she was waiting for her winnings to come through.

After meeting Richard Thompson through a lonely hearts advert, she also lied about having breast cancer and then stole money from him.

During the trial Thompson has also admitted having tricked other lovers out of their money.

She was jailed for 18 months in 1995 for stealing £36,000 from her former employer, the Woolwich.

She has told the jury she planned to get her husband a fishing job in the United States so their home could be refurbished. But she had planned to sell the house and all his shares while he was away, then disappear.

The jury heard that when police interviewed her about attempting to murder her husband, she had lied about what happened so as not to incriminate herself for stealing his money.

The trial continues.