A brave schoolgirl has told how she fended off an abductor while walking home from a night out.

Jodie Cartwright, 16, from Durrington, was ten minutes from home when her attacker grabbed her and began pushing her towards his car in Goring Street, Worthing.

But the plucky Durrington High School pupil fought back, pushed the man away and jumped over the fence of nearby Northbrook College to escape.

She said: "I won't go anywhere by myself now, not even in daytime. I'm not getting very good sleep because I keep having nightmares about his face."

Jodie had been out with three male friends in West Worthing for the evening, visiting a burger bar and playing on fruit machines.

She took the short train ride towards her home and was on the final leg of her journey, the well-lit and busy Goring Street, when a car slowed, turned off its lights, and a man began wolf-whistling to her and shouting out of the window: "Oi, oi - wait up!"

Jodie said: "The car slowed down near me so I quickened up and I heard someone get out so I quickened up again.

"He put his arm on mine and said do you want a lift' and I said no.

"But he persisted and kept saying: Come on, I'll give you a lift home'.

"I ran off a little bit and he ran and caught up with me and his voice was getting louder and he was shouting. He held me back by my shoulders and shouted at me to get in the car.

"I kept saying no and he was pushing me towards the car and, as he turned me to face him and push me in the car, I pushed him really hard and ran off."

Jodie, dressed in casual combat trousers and a black sweatshirt, managed to get home before breaking down in front of her brother, Scott, 19, and her aunt, Lisa White, who called the police.

The ordeal has left Jodie, who is sitting her GCSE exams this month, unable to sleep.

She has taken six days off school though she is sitting nine GCSEs including childrens' development and wants to train to be a doctor specialising in paediatrics.

Police interviewed Jodie on video but didn't release an e-fit of the would-be kidnapper, who was working in a two-man team with a driver, until 13 days after the attack.

Jodie's mum, Julie Edwards, said: "It seems they're quite nasty pieces of work.

"There's the possibility they've done it to other girls before and I'm sure they would try it again."

A spokeswoman for Sussex Police said the delay was due to finding mutually convenient times to meet.

Jodie said: "I got a bit upset doing the e-fit because it looks so much like him."

She was not able to describe the driver as he kept a hood or cap on. Jodie does not believe either man comes from the area.

Jodie, who was born in Preston, Lancashire, moved to Durrington as a baby.

She said: "I have always felt safe in Durrington. He obviously doesn't live in the area, otherwise I would have probably recognised him.

"I'm not as trusting now. You always get wolf-whistling with a big group of girls but now if it happens I get nervous and worry a lot."

The incident took place on Tuesday last week at 11.30pm and the car drove towards Littlehampton on the A259.

The man who got out of the car is white, about 25, 5ft 10in, of average build with a shaven head, a goatee or unshaven face, a local accent and wore a dark coloured waist length jacket, dark jeans and light coloured trainers.

The car is described as old, silver, the size of a Ford Escort and with four doors.

Anyone with information should contact DC Richard Bialoszewski at Worthing CID on 0845 60 70 999 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111, quoting reference WW2/3681/06.